The Seoul Economic Promotion Agency (SBA, CEO Hyunwoo Kim) announced that it signed a business agreement with the Korea Data Industry Promotion Agency (K-DATA), a data specialized agency under the Ministry of Science and ICT, to promote data-based growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Seoul.
This agreement was signed on January 16, 2026, at the headquarters of the Seoul Economic Promotion Agency, and the two organizations agreed to cooperate to promote linked support projects utilizing data held by supported companies, so that R&D results can lead to growth resources for commercialization and expansion.
With the recent acceleration of the AI- and data-driven industrial transformation, data accumulation and utilization capabilities are emerging as key elements of SME competitiveness. However, many companies receiving Seoul-type R&D support have struggled to secure funding due to insufficient collateral despite possessing technological competitiveness, or have encountered limitations in securing additional funding during the post-R&D commercialization phase.
To address these bottlenecks, the Seoul Economic Promotion Agency plans to pursue a new R&D support model that transforms data into assets and links them to guarantees and funding through collaboration with K-DATA, which supports the entire data value assessment, quality management, and utilization cycle.
K-DATA, a data specialist organization, has been pursuing key strategic initiatives, including fostering a data distribution and transaction ecosystem, revitalizing the data industry, and establishing a foundation for data utilization and protection. Based on this agreement, the two organizations plan to strengthen their collaboration to quantitatively evaluate the data accumulated by Seoul-type R&D support companies during their R&D processes and expand this data into financial links for additional R&D.
In addition, the Seoul Economic Promotion Agency and K-DATA plan to continue to maintain and develop a cooperative system to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Seoul.
Kim Hyun-woo, CEO of the Seoul Economic Promotion Agency, said, “Through this agreement, we have established a foundation for small and medium-sized enterprises to convert the data they accumulate during their R&D processes into quantitative value and link this to guarantees and funding.” He added, “We expect that this will resolve the funding bottleneck caused by a lack of collateral, allowing technological development results to quickly lead to commercialization and expansion.”
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