The Seoul Metropolitan Government invests $1.29 billion to “nurture 50 unicorns”

Seoul Unicorn Starup Hub

The Seoul Metropolitan Government(SMG) has announced the “Seoul Startup Policy 2030”, a plan to join the ranks of the top five global startup cities by nurturing 50 global unicorns (privately held startups with an enterprise value of $768 million or more) by 2030 and building the world’s largest “Seoul Unicorn Startup Hub” where 1,000 startups can grow. A total of $1.29 billion in financial resources will be invested.

The world’s largest Seoul Unicorn Startup Hub (100,000 square meters) will be opened in Seongsu, and the Seoul Manufacturing Startup Hub (17,000 square meters) will be established in Gocheok. Overseas Startup Hubs, which support the overseas expansion of startups, will be expanded to 20 countries such as Spain and Singapore, and shared offices in an environment that actively supports entrepreneurship will be introduced to nurture budding and early-stage entrepreneurs. The 200,000-square-meter “AI Seoul Tech City” will be completed in 2028, and a robotics industry cluster will be established in the Suseo area, where robotics companies will be concentrated. A self-sustaining entrepreneurship ecosystem that maximizes private sector expertise will be created by building talent development infrastructure and strengthening investment networks.

The SMG has announced that since 2009, when it launched the ‘2030 Youth Entrepreneurship Project’, Seoul has been supporting tech startups in earnest, increasing the number of startup support facilities in Seoul from just 17 in 2011 to 30 in 2023. Over the past 11 years, the 14,000 startups supported by the city have created 23,000 jobs, attracted $1.1 billion in investment, and achieved $4.37 billion in sales.

In particular, the value of Seoul’s startup ecosystem, which takes into account the enterprise value, revenue and growth of startups, has increased more than fivefold in just two years, from $40.7 billion in 2021 to $210 billion in 2023, making it one of the top 10 best cities in the world for startups. In January this year, 37 companies that participated in the CES (International Consumer Electronics Show) in the U.S. won the “CES Innovation Awards” for their growth with the support of the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

However, after passing through the tunnel of the coronavirus pandemic, the global economic downturn has led to a severe period of investment in startups and ventures, and many innovative startups are experiencing a crisis. Despite the quantitative and qualitative growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in a short period of time, Korea has faced the limitation that the growth rate of unicorn companies is slower than that of entrepreneurship powerhouses such as the United States and Germany.

Recognizing that the next decade will determine the global dominance of Korea’s innovation industry, the SMG will make strategic investments and fully support entrepreneurial growth to boost Seoul’s startup growth, which is currently slightly stagnant.

On June 21, Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced the Seoul Startup Policy 2030, which aims to make Seoul the fifth largest startup city in the world and said that the public sector will act as an enabler through strong startup policies so that the private sector can grow autonomously and produce tangible results.

The comprehensive plan will focus on four core tasks: building a global startup city brand, scaling up startups by growth stage, nurturing startups in four future industries, and revitalizing a startup ecosystem based on advanced manufacturing.

The SMG will build a total of 220,000 square meters of new startup support spaces for robotics, fintech, and bio, including the Seoul Unicorn Startup Hub, and provide additional funding totaling $1.9 billion, including the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Fund and the Robot Growth Fund. In addition, the city government will nurture a total of 10,000 tech talents through 25 Seoul Software Academies to help them find employment in startups.

By 2023, the current 150,000 square meters of incubator space housing 1,130 companies will be expanded to 370,000 square meters and the number of companies that can move in will increase to 3,277 (220,000 square meters more space and 2,147 companies that can move in).

Seoul-style shared offices

The SMG will build a “brand” that Seoul is the world’s top startup city, formalize “Seoul is a great city for startups = the city where unicorns are born,” and expand opportunities for our companies to expand overseas by diversifying points of contact with global investors.

First, Seoul will create the world’s largest “Seoul Unicorn Startup Hub” (100,000 square meters), which will house 1,000 startups by 2030 in the Seoul Forest parking lot next to Sampyo Ready Mixed Concrete in Seongsu. Like Station F (30,000 square meters) in Paris and JTC LaunchPad (60,000 square meters) in Singapore, the hub will house early-stage startups and potential unicorns, and will also create a $76.8 million dedicated fund for tenants, allowing Seoul to invest directly in future unicorns. For the first time, Seoul will also establish a “pay it forward culture” (Silicon Valley’s volunteer culture where successful senior companies generously support junior companies). In Seoul’s Pay it Forward culture, companies grow together through frequent investment and mentoring from senior companies, rather than through government-led startup support.

The Sampyo Ready Mixed Concrete site in Seongsu is being transformed into the Global Future Complex, a former cement factory that will become a center for innovation and high-tech industries. The Seoul Forest and Seongsu districts will be home to many of the world’s trend-setting companies, which will be able to collaborate with startups 24/7 at the Seoul Unicorn Incubator. The lower floors will be dedicated to civic use, allowing citizens to experience startups’ innovative technologies up close and fast. The building’s design, operation strategy, and tenants will be designed to be icons of innovation.

The Seoul Unicorn Startup Hub operates as a “private responsibility system” in which private organizations or companies with expertise in supporting startups directly select, nurture, and invest in startups that have the potential to grow into unicorns and develop them into future unicorn companies.

In addition, the city government will provide one-stop support for startups from idea discovery to technology demonstration, prototype production, and investment by integrating distributed corporate support functions through existing startup facilities. In addition, the entire building, including facility management, security, green technology, and the Food Tech Court used by citizens, will be created as a space for startups to demonstrate innovative new technologies.

The SMG will develop Try Everything, a global startup festival, into the world’s largest investment festival, similar to Finland’s SLUSH, with 2,000 promising startups and 100,000 participants from around the world. Seoul will select 700 companies, including promising startups, to demonstrate new technologies and services, exhibit at the world’s three largest technology fairs (CES, MWC, IFA), and aggressively support their overseas expansion, including investment and marketing.

Try Everything will expand the participation of domestic and foreign investors and big tech companies to share innovative ideas and startups and double the number of exhibits (from 50 to 100) where citizens can experience the innovative technologies of Seoul’s future industries and startups, including artificial intelligence (AI).

Seoul will build “Seoul Pavilion” at CES (International Consumer Electronics Show, U.S.), MWC (Mobile World Congress, Barcelona) and IFA (International Home Appliance Fair, Berlin) consecutively from 2024 to promote the innovation of our companies and imprint the image of a global startup city on the world.

The city government will significantly expand the number of “overseas startup bases” that support technology and service demonstration and investment to help Korean companies enter overseas markets. It will also strengthen private and public investment infrastructure and establish a “scale-up promotion system that equally supports the three pillars of overseas expansion, investment and talent. Seoul-style shared offices will be established in the downtown area, providing 700 short-term startup spaces.

The SMG will expand its overseas startup hubs, which currently operate in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City) and India (Bengaluru), to 20 locations in the Americas, the EU and the Middle East. This year, Seoul will establish two new hubs in Spain (October) and Singapore (November) to support the scale-up of startups with innovative technologies and services recognized in the global market.

Seoul and overseas private business incubators (accelerators) will jointly select outstanding startups and provide them with pre-training in Korea, match them with local large and medium-sized companies and venture investors, and attract follow-on investment.

Seoul will also strengthen the foundation for the private sector to continue discovering and investing in innovative startups to accelerate their growth. By establishing the Tehran Forum (tentative name), a public-private investment network in Seoul’s Tehran Valley, where 84% of the nation’s investors are concentrated, the city will operate an investment revitalization network led by investors, technology-based startups and others from 2024.

The Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies, startup investment firms, and startups will jointly establish the Seoul Unicorn Startup Hub Investment Fund, which will be led by the private sector from investment identification to investment execution.

The SMG will also solve the startup scene’s “finding people to work” problem. By 2025, the Seoul Software Academy will be established in all 25 districts of Seoul, creating a human resources training infrastructure that will produce 5,000 SW developers and digital talents annually. By matching the development talent needed by startups with 1,500 people per year, the city government will help 10,000 people get jobs at startups by 2030.

Seoul will develop and provide the curriculum needed for startup sites and, in cooperation with the Venture Business Association, will hold a “Startup Recruitment Fair” to introduce job fields and conduct interviews so that companies and trainees can be matched according to their preferences.

The SMG will develop Campus Towns of universities as the center of the early-stage startup ecosystem. Leveraging the capabilities and resources of universities, Seoul will support the revitalization of technology startups by young startups, professors, and researchers by leveraging the strengths of each university, such as ICT, proptech, and healthcare, to provide companies with the necessary talents and technologies. Starting in 2023, 800 pre-stage and early-stage startups will be created annually, and 30 of them will receive comprehensive support from the Campus Town Enterprise Growth Center (located in Gwangjin-gu) for investment and entry into overseas markets.

The city government will establish a “startup zone” for prospective and early-stage entrepreneurs with life-oriented businesses such as fashion and living. Up to 700 short-term startup spaces with donation payment facilities will be provided in areas with a high concentration of young people, such as Donggyo-dong, Geokseok-dong, and Ahyeon-dong. Startups in the coworking office will be able to receive private startup support services such as business model consulting, marketing, and prototype production through vouchers.

A total of 46,600 square meters of shared offices will be built in seven locations, including Donggyo-dong, Geokseok-dong, Ahyeon-dong, Shinjeong-dong, Jangan-dong, Hangang-ro-dong and Nokbun-dong.

The beneficiaries of the technology startup policy will be supported from existing deep-tech companies to early-stage startups, creating a growth ladder for startups that grows from shared offices to small and medium-sized startup facilities (such as Seoul Startup Didimteo) and leads to the seven major startup hubs such as Seoul Startup Hub Gongdeok.

Yeouido Integrated Fintech Lab

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will continue to nurture startups in fintech, biotech, and artificial intelligence (AI), the “smokeless future industries,” and will also strengthen the system for nurturing startups in the four future industries by selecting “robotics” as the next innovation growth area.

First, Seoul will create a “Robot Friendly City, Seoul” where the robotics industry improves the quality of life for citizens. Seoul has optimal conditions for demonstrating innovative robotics technology due to the development of the service robot industry and the integration of various infrastructures. The government will establish a robot growth fund of $153.8 million by ’26 to invest in robot startups, laying the foundation for long-term investments that can be made from technology accumulation to commercialization and mass production of products.

The robotics industry is an important means of solving social problems such as the increasing demand for care due to the declining population and labor shortage and is considered a core industry that is growing at an annual rate of more than 6% as a conglomerate of future new technologies.

The city government will introduce robotics in the care services sector, which reflects the social structure of the city. It will introduce care robots on a pilot basis at municipal elderly care centers, municipal hospitals, and welfare facilities to support technology growth and market creation for care robot companies.

The Suseo area will become a robotics cluster where robotics companies will be concentrated. The Seoul Robotics Tech Center will be established as an anchor facility to promote the commercialization of robotics startups and provide customized support for each stage of growth. The SMG will promote Suseo as a specialized robotics area by attracting Seoul branches of key robotics industries, universities, and research institutes, and building a robotics theme park and robotics science museum. It will also develop 1,500 hands-on robotics talents by 2030 by operating a “Robot Academy” in cooperation with research institutes.

The government will accelerate the growth of “fintech” startups, the core of the digital financial industry. By leveraging public contributions in the Yeouido financial district, Seoul will expand business support infrastructure to accelerate fintech startups and growth. By integrating the Seoul FinTech Lab (Yeouido) and the second FinTech Lab (Mapo), which are already home to over 100 fintech startups, the goal is to support the scale-up of 170 startups to become global fintech unicorns by 2030.

The Hongneung area, home to research institutes, universities, and hospitals, will take a leap forward as a global biomedical cluster in November 2023. The development and commercialization of biomedicine and advanced medical devices will enter a mature stage, and the SMG will establish a $1.23 billion bio-fund by 2030 to help researchers scale up bio-startups.

The city government will establish the Seoul BioHub Global Cooperation Complex (‘November 23) and the Hongneung R&D Support Center (‘February 25) in the Hongneung Bio Cluster and open the Hongneung Advanced Medical Device Development Center (‘February 27) to support the commercialization of bio startups by providing 126 types of specialized research equipment to all relevant companies.

In addition, to support the scale-up and global expansion of promising bio startups, Seoul will establish a bio fund of $1.23 billion by 2030 and expand inter-industry linkages by encouraging medical and pharmaceutical researchers to start their own businesses.

The 200,000-square-meter AI Seoul Tech City, which will usher in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) 2.0, will be completed in 2028. An “AI industrial city in Seoul” will be built on the site of the current Yanggok wholesale market in Yangjae-dong, gathering AI talents and companies, the core foundation of the future industry, as well as cultural and residential spaces for them. Domestic and international graduate schools specializing in AI, as well as world-class companies and research institutes, will be concentrated in Yangjae-dong.

This site is expected to become a global cluster for the AI industry in Seoul by providing cloud computing services to accelerate the scale-up of bio startups, demonstrating technology projects, and conducting convergence research between industries in other fields.

Seoul Manufacturing Startup Hub and Hongneung R&D Center

To improve manufacturing competitiveness by addressing the lack of hardware manufacturing infrastructure in Seoul, the SMG is focusing on promoting “advanced manufacturing,” a high-value-added industry that combines manufacturing with new industries such as semiconductors, aviation, and electric vehicles.

As leading countries such as the U.S. recognize the importance of high-tech manufacturing startups and actively invest in them, the SMG will build a “high-tech manufacturing startup infrastructure” centered on manufacturing industry concentrations (Yongsan and Guro) and create a specialized fund that takes into account the characteristics of manufacturing startups that require large-scale funding and long-term investment, with the goal of creating 10 high-tech manufacturing unicorns by 2030.

By 2027, Seoul will establish the Seoul Manufacturing Startup Hub (17,652 square meters) for hardware startups at the former site. of the Seoul Southern Detention Center in Gocheok-dong. The hub will be staffed by professional engineers to support the full cycle of manufacturing startups, from idea generation and design to engineering, prototyping and initial mass production. In addition, a “Localization Support Center for Advanced Manufacturing Products” will be established to provide one-stop support for local research for export, product improvement for local markets, certification, and after-sales service.

Public support for high-tech manufacturing start-ups was needed in Seoul, where one in three companies has abandoned product development or outsourced production to other countries such as China due to the lack of manufacturing infrastructure in Seoul, unlike Brooklyn, USA or Shenzhen, China, and there have been cases of product design and know-how leakage in the process.

The G-Valley area of Guro-gu and Geumcheon-gu, which is home to 12,000 IT-based manufacturing and software companies, is an optimal location for nurturing high-tech manufacturing startups as it is adjacent to the Magok Advanced R&D Cluster and Gwanak S-Valley.

To promote “high-tech manufacturing,” which has a high survival rate and job creation effect, Seoul will establish a $461.9 million fund starting in 2024. The fund will invest up to $15.4 million per company in advanced manufacturing companies such as semiconductors, secondary batteries and smart manufacturing to enable substantial technology development.

As the advanced manufacturing sector is characterized by a long period of technology development, $46.96 million will be invested from 2023 to 2030 to provide steady research support and establish a demonstration system that is not affected by rapidly changing industry trends.

The SMG will also invest $11.86 million in R&D for advanced manufacturing startups, expand testbeds previously focused on public institutions to private companies, and invest $35.1 million to expand the scope of demonstration of products and services with manufacturing technologies.

By 2026, $665.59 million will be invested to promote the Seoul Startup Policy 2030. The total investment will reach $1.29 billion by 2030.