“The goal of Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED) is to strengthen the Korean startup ecosystem and create soft-landing possibilities for Korean startups to scale up their business at a global level”
Last month, KISED held a discussion session on a technology foundation program for foreigners at Korea Techno-venture Foundation to discuss foreign entrepreneurs’ issues and the challenges facing their business in Korea.
After the discussion, KISED president Kang Si-Woo sat down with Venturesquare to talk about KISED’s role in supporting future entrepreneurs and its Global startup support programs for 2015.
“KISED is a startup incubating institution established in 2008 as the implementation arm of the SMBA (Small & Medium Business Administration). We have a budget of 200 million dollars for 2015 to run more effective startup support programs that can develop a richer entrepreneurial culture.”
KISED launched “Global startup support program” in 2011 to meet the demand from Korean entrepreneurs who seek to enter overseas markets.
“Business market for startups is no longer limited to Korea. Competition in domestic market is intensifying but I believe that there are lots of business opportunities out there. We help Korean startups expand their businesses into other countries and scale up to attract more international users”
The selected startups will be incubated in a global market like U.S, UK and China for a certain period of time with full financial assistance from the government after finishing domestic training in Korea.
“Partnered with over 15 overseas accelerators and incubators in 12 cities in 10 countries, the program lets early-stage startup venture out into the world. KISED’s overseas incubation period is 12 weeks and can be prolonged up to 14 weeks for those in need.”
He noted that KISED’s program is a unique program in terms of the longer length of incubation period compare to other similar programs in Korea.
“Basically, ‘Global support startup program’ has the mission to foster early-stage startups as global startups from the beginning.”
As a part of the Global Startup support program, KISED is also running a technology based startup support program for foreigners. This program was designed to promote foreign technology entrepreneurs who have business item and plan on starting their own business with excellent technology in Korea.
“There are many foreign entrepreneurs who have great business ideas but need help securing visas so they can stay in Korea to work on them. We help them get working visas and provide various support programs including language education and business startup training.
Last year, 27 foreign startups out of 28, chosen for this program, successfully started their business in Korea
Kang said he also looked for possible synergies between Korean and foreign entrepreneurs. For example, creating more job opportunities and collaboration work between them that creates a rich innovation and diverse startup culture.
“Our programs are open to everybody who are passionate about running their own business. It doesn’t matter whether you are Korean or not. So I hope that many future entrepreneurs apply to the program to seize the opportunities. I promised that KISED would do its utmost to help creating new potential startups ”
Choo, Sung-ho choos3@venturesqaure.net
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