Participants pose for a group photo after the 2nd Startup Leaders Summit. | Photo provided by Gyeonggido Business & Science Accelerator
Gyeonggi Province and the Gyeonggido Business & Science Accelerator (GBSA) announced that they successfully hosted the ‘2nd Startup Leaders Summit’ on December 2 at the Ibis Ambassador Suwon Hotel. Now in its second year, the event was organized to facilitate experience sharing among senior and junior companies in the tech startup sector and to explore collaboration opportunities with investors and large corporations.
The event drew approximately 200 attendees, including Hyun-gon Kim, President of GBSA, investment professionals such as venture capitalists (VCs), accelerators (ACs), and open innovation managers, as well as representatives from tech startups in the province. The program featured a startup exhibition, presentations by outstanding companies, reverse pitching, a panel talk, and networking sessions, fostering active exchange among participants.
The Reverse Pitching session was particularly engaging, as investors and representatives from large corporations directly explained collaboration opportunities to participating companies, significantly boosting their focus.
Following this, the panel talk featured Jungmo Koo, CEO of SunjinRCS, representing startups; Sungmin Choi, Vice President of CNTTECH, representing accelerators; and Jung Nam Ahn, Director at Woori Technology Investment, representing venture capitalists. They engaged in discussions on ‘Investment Strategies in the AI Era’ and ‘Criteria for Prepared Startups’.
During the awards ceremony for this year’s Pre-seed/Early-stage Tech Startup Support Program, TheFreshMore received the Grand Prize, NeonTec earned the Top Excellence Award, and PLITHUS was honored with the Excellence Award.
Award-winning companies shared their technology development processes and market entry strategies, providing practical know-how to aspiring entrepreneurs. The networking session offered in-depth consultations with experts in various fields, including investment, global expansion, semiconductors, marketing, finance, tax, and patent law, tailored to each industry.
GBSA plans to leverage this event to continue providing follow-up support, enabling tech startups in the province to expand their investment networks and cooperation ecosystems continuously.
Hyun-gon Kim, President of GBSA, stated, “Advice from senior companies and experts is crucial for startups as they grow. GBSA will systematically strengthen funding and investment connections to help startups grow stably from their early stages.”
Gyeonggi Province’s ‘Pre-seed/Early-stage Tech Startup Support’ program, which began in 2009, is now in its 17th year. To date, it has supported 2,287 pre-seed and early-stage entrepreneurs, achieving significant results, including over 1,244 business registrations, 2,120 intellectual property rights, 2,909 jobs created, and 67.4 billion KRW in sales.
