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A Successful Start to GRaND-K, an Audition-Style Start-Up Academy at Hongneung Innopolis (May 11, 2021)
- Date : 2021-10-26
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A Successful Start to GRaND-K, an Audition-Style Start-Up Academy at Hongneung Innopolis
There is keen interest in GRaND-K, the cluster-based start-up academy program launched by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST; President: Dr. Seok-Jin Yoon) and Hongneung Innopolis. Hongneung, designated as the first special innopolis in Seoul, advocates a Korean-style version of London Tech City and the Boston Biocluster. Hongneung is making various efforts to establish a foundation to make the leap into becoming a global bio-startup cluster, and as a part of that, it has been preparing a unique start-up academy program which runs from April 19 to May 7. A total of 122 teams have applied to take part in the program.
The start-up academy conducts common start-up education courses for prospective and new (less than 3 years old) start-ups in the Hongneung area, and holds regular audition-style start-up competitions. In this competition, investment institutions participate as judges, evaluating start-ups’ technologies, marketability, and innovation during the fourth round of the competition, while also supporting their capabilities through internship programs and consultations based on their unique strengths and specializations.
On April 11, KIST signed an investment agreement with 11 investment institutions: Samho Green Investment, SEMA Investment, SparkLabs, ID Ventures, Aju IB Investment, Yozma Group Korea, Infobank, K-Ground Ventures, K-Ground Partners, and Plan.H Ventures. For the start-up teams that successfully complete the program, KIST will support linkage efforts between the start-ups and investment institutions. After document screening for all 122 support teams is completed, the common education courses and competition will be held.
KIST President, Dr. Seok-Jin Yoon, said, “I was surprised to find out that more start-up teams applied for the program than I originally expected, which proves that public interest in start-ups is very high,” adding, “we will spare no effort to revitalize technology start-ups through organic support among key technology institutions in Hongneung, such as KIST, Kyung Hee University, and Korea University through this start-up academy, and to establish Hongneung as a mecca for technology start-ups.”