Korean startups generated jobs in 2020 despite COVID-19 downturn: Ministry of SMEs & Startups on ‘Global Entrepreneurship Academy’ graduation day

South Korea’s startup ecosystem expanded and helped in employment generation in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, as per a report by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. The Ministry announced the analyzed trends of employment and venture company investments on Friday as it felicitated 60 startup teams that graduated from the first Global Startup/ Entrepreneurship Academy program held in 2020.

The graduation ceremony of 60 teams of startup companies of the 1st Global Startup Academy was held at Nodeul Island Multipurpose Hall Forest in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. The Global Entrepreneurship Academy is a program newly established by the Ministry of Commerce in August 2020 to foster innovative startups that lead the global market.

The Global Entrepreneurship Academy is designed to provide new methods and forms of education programs suitable for the 4th Industrial Revolution era. The project aims to transfer the technical know-how of global conglomerates and experts at home and abroad to startup companies in the field of innovative technology. The program also provides support for accelerating global startup plans and overseas networking, and acquiring commercial funds. Since its establishment in August of last year, 60 startup companies have participated in the ‘Global Startup Academy’, creating sales of 8.4 billion won, generating new jobs for 144 people, and attracting follow-up investment of 5.9 billion won in five months.

The program has been supported by four global conglomerates, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), NVIDIA (NVIDIA), Microsoft (MS), Google Cloud (Google Cloud), and five world-class startup incubators, including Techstars, 500 Startups, SOSV, Plug & Play, and Startupbootcamp. At the event held non-face-to-face, AI-startup’ Deep Insight’ Co., Ltd. received the best grades in the comprehensive evaluation such as business excellence, sales, and employment, and ‘Data Republic’ Co., Ltd. won the IR session competition.

Talking about the success of the Korean startup ecosystem, Vice Minister Kang Seong-cheon said at the event, “Last year, even in the midst of the Corona crisis, venture investment reached an all-time high of 4.3 trillion won, and innovative companies took responsibility for a total of 724,000 jobs, opening the second era of venture boom.” He said, “We will continue to support the growth of startup companies by creating a stronger startup venture ecosystem in the future.”

The Ministry also announced the recruitment for the second batch of 40 startup teams that started on February 17th to March 17th, 2021. If you are a startup company with less than 3 years of business that works in field of data, network, and Artificial Intelligence, you can check for more information on the site www.k-startup.go.kr.

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