KU Holdings secures KRW 3 Billion startup funds
The Ministry of Education announces the results for the university startup fund selection

Recently, the results for the university startup fund selection were announced by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Venture Investment Corporation.

The University Startup Fund is a funding program that concentrates on investing in university startup companies through the university and government matching system. It has drawn great attention from universities as it offers investments that support university startup education in becoming actual startup businesses.

A total of 12 unions, comprising eleven university holdings and one private investment holdings, applied. The university startup fund selection criteria was based on a two round evaluation: the first round of assessment involved document screening and field inspection, and for the second round, face-to-face interviews were conducted in order to assess the university’s startup support, will, and fund management capabilities along with many other attributes.

As a result, a total of five unions, including Korea University Holdings, Busan Association Holdings, Seoul National University Holdings, Yonsei University Holdings, and Chonnam National University Holdings (in Korean alphabetical order), were selected. From the estimated total amount of KRW 17.1 billion, KU Holdings is expected to receive KRW 3 billion.

Through the union formation process, the selected unions will start its official investments in the initial startup companies within their respective universities. They also plan to excavate talented potential intellectuals and support actual startups through various routes such as startup competitions, startup clubs, and graduate level labs.

Soo-Won Kim, co-president of KU Holdings and former executive vice president for research, said, “Even though we hold startup competitions within the university, the financial support we can offer to outstanding students is fairly limited. But by receiving such funds, we expect to see university startups become more active through the KU’s investment in excellent winners.”

Seung-Pyo Hong, co-president of KU Holdings, expressed his expectation by saying, “The challenges that graduate students face in startups is not easy in many ways and receiving financial support is even more difficult. I believe that the University Startup Fund will help graduate students alleviate such burden and difficulties.”

The Ministry of Education announced that its aim is to transform the university startup support system so that university startup intellectuals can start their own business through investments rather than receiving loans. While asking the selected unions to actively invest in university startups, the Ministry of Education also plans to change the current system, which allows universities to apply for the University Startup Fund only through university holdings. In addition, it will promote collaboration with small and medium business administration in order to provide universities with opportunities to have direct access to research and business partnerships and to raise university startup funds.