South Korea Launches First Government-Backed Global Founder Support Program and K-Founder Fund

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) has officially launched its first nationwide program supporting Korean entrepreneurs and students overseas, unveiling the Startup for All Global Project and the K-Founder Fund during K-Founders Connect in Silicon Valley on July 24.

Held at Startup Venture Campus (SVC) Silicon Valley, the event brought together approximately 70 participants, including Vice Minister Roh Yong-Seok, Korean startups, Korean residents abroad, international students, Korean venture capitalists, and officials from startup support organizations.

The Startup for All Global Project extends Korean government startup support beyond the country’s borders, providing tailored assistance to Koreans living abroad and students studying overseas who want to build companies in global markets. MSS will select 80 promising founders and aspiring founders across four key locations—Silicon Valley and New York in the United States, Singapore, and India—and support them through online and offline mentoring, customized incubation programs, and startup activity funding.

The initiative originated from a suggestion made at the AI Connect Summit in Singapore this March, when a Korean student studying abroad proposed that young Koreans overseas also need policy support to launch their own companies. MSS responded by designing the program specifically for this community.

A dedicated mentor group will share their experience building companies abroad. Members include Lee Jung-Hee, CEO of Primer USA; Oh Sun-Ho, co-founder of Osteogene Tech; Kim Ju-Yoon, CEO of Dot; and Lee Seung-Hoon, CEO of Ringle—Korean founders who have won customers, built revenue, and raised capital overseas in fields spanning displays to edtech. The group also includes accelerators and VCs specializing in market entry, commercialization, and fundraising.

MSS will leverage its overseas bases, including the K-Startup Center (KSC), to provide local information on law, regulation, and market trends, and to connect companies with technology validation, business partners, and investors.

At the same event, MSS launched the K-Founder Fund, a new fund through which successful Korean entrepreneurs abroad help identify and nurture the next generation of founders. Targeting over KRW 100 billion, it is the first fund of its kind built in partnership with the Korean diaspora—created by the government through the Fund of Funds alongside successful Korean founders and investors overseas, centered on local Korean networks.

Named the ASQ Pioneer Fund and managed by Valon Capital, the fund will be led by Kim Dong-Shin, co-founder of Sendbird, the first Korean-founded B2B unicorn in Silicon Valley. “Alongside managing the fund, we plan to help Korean startups establish themselves in global markets through networking and investor relations sessions tied to Korean communities such as United Korean Founders (UKF),” Kim said.

“The Startup for All Global Project is our first startup support program for Koreans living abroad, and it marks the first time we’ve put a tailored support system in place for our entrepreneurial talent working overseas,” said Vice Minister Roh Yong-Seok. “We will back our people so they can take the leap into entrepreneurship, at home and abroad. Working with U.S. venture capital firms and building on the K-Founder Fund, we will create a virtuous cycle that channels the capital and experience of Korean founders and investors who have succeeded overseas into the next generation taking their own leap.”

Earlier the same morning, MSS held a roundtable to hear challenges facing Korean ventures and startups operating in the United States and to explore policy solutions. Seven promising Korean companies based in Silicon Valley participated—RNR, WittGen Biotechnologies, Birdie Labs LLC, Eastsea Brother, Vespexx, Stratio Korea, and FriendliAI—alongside the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, an accelerator from Stanford University, and representatives of United Korean Founders (UKF). Participants shared operational difficulties and policy suggestions, and discussed how investment, technology financing, and institutional cooperation could support their global growth.

Jung Da-Hyang, a researcher at Stanford University, introduced the Stanford Consumer Accelerator (SCA) program, which helps Korean startups in areas such as K-beauty and K-food establish themselves in the U.S. market, and discussed collaboration with SVC Silicon Valley to support promising Korean companies expanding abroad.

The new support framework represents South Korea’s most comprehensive policy push to date aimed at building a global entrepreneurial network among its overseas talent, with government-backed capital and structured mentorship designed to reduce barriers for Korean founders entering competitive international markets.

Earlier this year, MSS’s policy initiatives included expanding startup infrastructure through regional and sector-specific programs. In June, LigaChem Biosciences secured $357 million from the Korea National Growth Fund, marking the first direct investment from the government policy fund into a publicly listed biotech company. The Korea National Growth Fund is a core government policy vehicle supporting strategic industries, and the LigaChem investment demonstrated the fund’s expanding role in backing late-stage ventures with global ambitions.