The Gangwon Center for Creative Economy and Innovation announced that it received the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award for Outstanding Startup Planners in 2025 at the opening ceremony of the "2025 COMEUP," a domestic global startup festival. This prestigious award, presented by the government to startup planners who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in discovering, nurturing, and investing in early-stage startups, is given to only five startups nationwide.
The Gangwon Center for Creative Economy and Innovation has been highly praised for its proactive efforts to strengthen the Gangwon region's startup ecosystem and foster technology-based startups. The center has contributed to expanding the local startup base by establishing an integrated support system encompassing everything from discovery and incubation to investment. This includes fostering startups based on regionally specialized industries, strengthening investment capacity for early-stage growth, and fostering a startup and investment ecosystem as a public accelerator.
This year, we discovered, nurtured, and supported the growth of startups in Gangwon's strategic industries, including healthcare, agricultural product-based food tech, and eco-friendly and energy. We also invested in 13 early-stage local companies, supported their global expansion into Singapore, and promoted open innovation with seven companies, including Naver, Hana Bank, and Hanwha Hotels & Resorts, connecting 21 innovative local startups. Through these efforts, we simultaneously drove investment and scale-up growth within the region, serving as a connector for the startup ecosystem.
An official from the Gangwon Creative Economy Innovation Center said, “This award is a recognition of our efforts to discover, nurture, invest, and create an ecosystem for the growth of startups in the Gangwon region,” and added, “We will continue to strengthen our expertise as a venture builder and public accelerator that fosters regional future industries and establish ourselves as an organization that leads the regional startup ecosystem.”
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