Demoday, the finale of the Chung Ju-Young Startup Competition(정주영 창업경진대회) held annually by the Asan Nanum Foundation(아산나눔재단), was held at the COEX Auditorium on 31 October.

The Chung Ju-Young Startup Competition is a hands-on entrepreneurship support programme that inherits the entrepreneurial spirit of Asan’s founder, Ju-Young Chung, to spread the culture of entrepreneurship across the country and discover and support startups that take on new challenges. Since its launch in 2012, the competition has produced a number of promising startups, including Myrealtrip, Classum and Doodlin.

Now in its 12th year, the Chung Ju-Young Startup Competition has been recruiting participating teams since March under the theme “Tenacity”, and has selected a total of 14 startups to advance to the final round, the Demoday. Around 1,200 teams applied for this year’s competition, resulting in a high 87:1 competition ratio. The finalists received office space at MARU180 and 360, entrepreneurship platforms run by the Asan Nanum Foundation, and one-on-one mentoring from venture capitalists and accelerators.

A total of seven teams took part in the ‘Challenge Track’ for pre-startup teams: Greenik, RENUTRA, Amber Road, Ocena, Offlight, TOFU and Flora Bio. In the Growth Track, aimed at startups within two years of incorporation, seven teams – NEAR Brain, Dinoz, Moreturn, BARC, Planfit, Fleetune and Helper Robotics – pitched products and services developed by their respective teams.

Five venture capitalists participated as judges at the Demoday, judging on criteria such as team capability, business model and entrepreneurial spirit.

Based on the judges’ evaluation, Offlight won the Grand Prize in the Challenge Track and Fleetune won the Grand Prize in the Growth Track. NEAR Brain and Amber Road won the Best Excellence prize, while Moreturn, Planfit, RENUTRA and Greenik were awarded the Prize for Excellence. BARC, Helper Robotics, Dinoz, Flora Bio, TOFU and Ocena won the Encouragement prize.

New this year, the Popularity Award went to Greenik, voted for by online pre-voting and onsite voting, and Offlight, voted by the startups attending Demoday as the team that embodied the Pay it Forward spirit.

In addition to a total cash prize of $182,000 (KRW 240 million), the winning teams will receive benefits such as global expansion and promotional marketing support, expert matching programmes and introductions to venture capital investors, which Asan Nanum Foundation provides to tenants of its MARU incubator.

Bumsuk Lee, CEO of Murex Partners, who led the judging process, said: “The products and services presented by the 14 teams who participated in the Chung Ju-Young Startup Competition Demoday appealed to me, and it was difficult to choose a winner as all the teams delivered excellent pitches. I hope they will continue their business with perseverance, using business and personal growth as a driving force”.

Yun-kyu Park, 2nd Vice Minister of Ministry of Science and ICT “Korea’s current industrialisation owes a lot to the achievements of those who had an indomitable entrepreneurial spirit at that time, such as Chung Ju-young, Yi Byeongcheol and Kim Woo-choong. I hope that among the teams competing in the 12th Chung Ju-Young Startup Competition today, entrepreneurs like the next Chung Ju-Young, Yi Byeongcheol and Kim Woo-choong will emerge and lead the future of Korea.

Keynote speaker Seung-gun Lee, CEO of Viva Republica (Toss), said, “There are many challenges when starting a business. Success is not determined by individual ability, intelligence or network, but by ‘luck’. The only way to beat luck is to be persistent, and to be persistent you need a reason. The reason behind the situation, the reason why you have to do it, the reason why you don’t want to back down, the reason why you want to do it this time, is what creates persistence”. “Success begins when you are not really afraid of the defeat of failure,” he stressed.

Suk-Whan Chang, Chairman of the Asan Nanum Foundation, said, “We hope that the ‘Chung Ju-Young Startup Competition’, which is said to be the back door and living room of startups, will inspire the challenging spirit of ‘Tenacity’ not only for the startup teams who participated in today’s demo day, but also for many entrepreneurs who are going through the investment cold snap.” “The Asan Nanum Foundation will continue to actively support the dreams and passions of those who want to challenge startups.”

We hope that the Chung Ju-Young Startup Competition will awaken the indomitable spirit of entrepreneurs who are going through a cold spell of investment. We hope that the experience of entrepreneurship will inspire them to start making small but big changes for the world.” – Suk-Whan Chang, Chairman of the Asan Nanum Foundation ⓒPlatum

Korea’s current industrialisation owes a lot to the achievements of those who had an indomitable entrepreneurial spirit at that time, such as Chung Ju-young, Lee Byung-chul and Kim Woo-joong. I hope that among the teams competing in the 12th Chung Ju-Young Startup Competition today, entrepreneurs like the next Chung Ju-Young, Yi Byeongcheol and Kim Woo-choong will emerge and lead the future of Korea. – Yun-kyu Park, 2nd Vice-Minister of Ministry of Science and ICT ⓒPlatum

“There are many challenges when starting a business. Success is not determined by individual ability, intelligence or network, but by ‘luck’. The only way to beat luck is to be persistent, and to be persistent you need a reason.” – Seung-gun Lee, CEO of Viva Republica (Toss) ⓒPlatum

The six teams that won the participation prize. (1st left) Hee-jun Byun, CEO of BARC, (2nd left) Jaewon Choi, CEO of Helper Robotics, (3rd left) Yoonji Jung, CEO of Dinoz, (middle) Awardees Bumsuk Lee, CEO of Murex Partners, (3rd right) Seohyun Lee, CEO of Flora Bio, (2nd right) Bo Kyung Kwon, CEO of TOFU, (1st right) Min Gi Cho, CEO of Ocena ⓒPlatum

The four teams that received the Excellence Award. (1st left) Lee Yoon-seok, CEO of Moretun, (2nd left) Baek Hyun-Woo, CEO of Planfit. (middle) Awardees Bohyun Nam, CEO of HGI, (2nd right) Soo-Byum Lee, CEO of RENUTRA, and Dong-wook Song, CEO of Greenik. ⓒPlatum

The two teams that won the Best Excellence Prize. (left) Taerin Lee, CEO of NEAR Brain, (centre) The Awardees Suk-Whan Chang, Chairman of Asan Nanum Foundation, (right) Eonho Im, CEO of Amber Road. ⓒPlatum

Namho Hong, CEO of Offlight (left), winner of the Challenge Track Grand Prize, Seokhwan Jang, Chairman of Asan Sharing Foundation (centre), and Ji-sung Kim, CEO of Fleetune (right), winner of the Growth Track Grand Prize ⓒPlatum

Namho Hong, CEO of Offlight ⓒPlatum

Ji-sung Kim, CEO of Fleetune ⓒPlatum

ⓒPlatum

ⓒPlatum

ⓒPlatum

The 14 startups that participated in the 12th Chung Ju-Young Startup Competition are posing for a photo. ⓒPlatum