Korea Launches Global Founder Network in India, Eyes Worldwide Expansion

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) has officially launched the Global K-Founders Network in New Delhi, marking the Korean government’s most concrete step yet toward building a sustained international support infrastructure for Korean entrepreneurs abroad.

The inaugural chapter was unveiled at the Global Business Center (GBC) in New Delhi, drawing roughly 20 Korean founders, investors, and startup ecosystem stakeholders active in the Indian market. Vice Minister Roh Yong-Seok led the launch in person and held high-level meetings with one of India’s premier technology institutions while in-country.

The Global K-Founders Network is a first-of-its-kind MSS initiative designed to connect Korean entrepreneurs and investors scattered across the globe into a single, community-driven support system. India was chosen as the network’s inaugural hub for its vast domestic market and deep pool of technical and entrepreneurial talent. The ministry plans to roll the network out progressively to major startup hubs in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia — building a privately led, sustainable cooperation framework where Korean founders can support one another across borders.

Following the launch ceremony, Vice Minister Roh held a roundtable with Korean business representatives operating in India. Attendees raised practical pain points including regulatory licensing hurdles and market entry barriers. “We will immediately reflect the voices from the field in our policies so that the government can serve as a reliable guide, ensuring that our companies’ challenges do not hit an impassable wall,” Roh said.

Later in the day, Roh visited the Delhi campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) for a meeting with the university’s president — a visit that follows Minister Han Seong-Sook’s trip to Tsinghua University’s Science and Technology Park in Beijing in January, underscoring the ministry’s push to deepen ties with leading university-based startup ecosystems worldwide. Startup representatives from both countries joined the conversation, generating substantive dialogue on mutual market entry and ecosystem partnership.

Roh used the occasion to introduce MSS’s flagship Startup for All initiative, a national policy drive aimed at making entrepreneurship accessible across Korean society. The IIT delegation responded positively to the vision, and both sides agreed that university-driven technological innovation should serve as a key growth engine for both nations.

To translate the meeting’s outcomes into concrete action, the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED) and IIT Delhi’s Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The agreement is intended to facilitate exchanges between promising startups and advance technology cooperation between the two countries.

“Starting with India, we will establish the Global K-Founders Network at major global hubs around the world, ensuring that our entrepreneurs can find a strong ally wherever they may be,” Vice Minister Roh said. “If India’s exceptional talent combines with Korea’s innovative startup capabilities, it will generate powerful synergy. We will further solidify bilateral startup ecosystem cooperation so that Korea’s ‘Startup for All’ initiative can unfold successfully on the global stage.”