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First Step Taken in Second Round of Seoul Hongneung Innopolis’ GRaND-K Start-Up School (May 2, 2022)
- Date : 2022-06-03
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First Step Taken in Second Round of Seoul Hongneung Innopolis’ GRaND-K Start-Up School
The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST; President: Dr. Seok-Jin Yoon) announced that it would be holding the 2022 GRaND-K Start-Up School Program, with main participants to include KIST, Kyunghee University, and Korea University, key technology institutions in the Hongneung Innopolis area of Seoul.
The GRaND-K Start-Up School is a representative project
of Hongneung Innopolis, which aims to enhance the capabilities of participating
teams by providing entrepreneurial training for prospective and early-stage
start-ups (established within the past 3 years) and hosting the first national
audition-type start-up competition in Korea.
Last year, 133 start-up teams and 11 investment
institutions participated in the first GRaND-K Start-up School tournament, with
11 teams being selected as finalists after going through a series of start-up
training programs and four rounds of competition. Participating investment
institutions delivered letters of intent to invest to the winning teams, and
ShiftBio, the team that won the grand prize in the competition, also won the top
prize in the national-level start-up competition.
This year, on May 2nd, KIST and 11 investors will gather
to hold an investment agreement ceremony for the second GRaND-K Start-up School
competition. A total of 21 investment companies, including 10 of the investment
companies that signed agreements last year, will take part in the competition.
Participating investors will offer mentoring support and join the examination panel
to select the winning teams.
The 11 institutions participating in the agreement include
Korea University Holdings, Kyobo Life Insurance, Technovalue, Korea Technology
Finance Corporation, Daewoong Pharmaceutical, Mint Venture Partners, Bluepoint
Partners, Scale Up Partners, ActnerLab, Woojung Bio, and Kolmar Holdings Korea.
The audition-style contest for start-ups includes a competition
held in the preliminary and final rounds, with venture capital (VC) and
accelerator (AC) firms which plan to actually invest in successful contestants participating
as judges and consultants. The finalists will receive funding from investment
institutions as well as support for establishing an office in Hongneung
Innopolis, and can also take advantage of opportunities to link with related
businesses, conduct marketing activities, establish research labs, and more through
Hongneung Innopolis.
The President of KIST, Dr. Yoon, commented, “Investment
institutions that participated in the first GRaND-K Start-Up School last year
submitted investment letters to all 11 winning teams, so companies and
start-ups alike are excited to be a part of this year’s competition. This
year's GRaND-K competition is also expected to be a success based on the
participants' excellent ideas and the wisdom of the investing institutions which
are eager to learn more about these companies.”
KIST, Kyunghee University, and Korea University, key technology institutions based in Seoul's Hongneung Innopolis area, decided to actively cooperate to set up a successful start-up school, and aim to establish themselves as role models for creating qualified jobs and driving the nation's future industries.