The Korea Institute for Startups and Entrepreneurship Development (President Yoo Jong-pil) announced on the 20th (local time) in the '2025 Startup Ecosystem Analysis Report' (Startup Blink) that Seoul rose one level from the previous year to enter the global top 20 for the first time.
In particular, this year's announcement revealed that five Korean cities, Ulsan, Jeju, Gangneung, Pohang, and Cheongju, were newly reflected. This is evaluated as a meaningful change that shows the growth and expansion of the Korean startup ecosystem.
The 'Startup Ecosystem Analysis Report', published annually since 2017, evaluates over 100 countries and 1,000 cities around the world, and in the 2025 edition, a total of 118 countries and 1,473 cities were included in the analysis.
StartupBlink collaborates with startup and market information analysis companies such as Crunchbase, Statista, and SEMrush, and based on the information collected, forms partnerships with over 100 governments and public institutions around the world to support startup policymaking and strategic planning, analyze the startup ecosystem in each country, and publish an annual report.
In 2025, Korea will maintain its 20th place in the global country rankings and 5th place in Asia for the third consecutive year, and its annual ecosystem growth rate will be 23.7%, exceeding the global average. It analyzed that Korea's startup ecosystem is growing thanks to multifaceted policy efforts such as fostering unicorn companies, attracting global companies, and expanding the influx of foreign startups, drawing attention to the 'Startup Korea Policy'.
In particular, Seoul has recorded an ecosystem growth rate of over 30% for three consecutive years, and has entered the top 20 global city rankings for the first time this year. Daejeon recorded an ecosystem growth rate of approximately 58%, recording the second highest ranking (366th) among domestic cities. Ulsan (546th), Jeju (852nd), Gangneung (887th), Pohang (903rd), and Cheongju (1048th) were included in the rankings for the first time this year.
Startup Blink added its analysis that “Korea is producing results in terms of the number of unicorn companies and corporate growth rate with policy support and rapid expansion of global networks, but continuous improvement is needed in terms of the absence of ultra-large innovative companies, lack of diffusion of a challenging culture, and balanced regional development.”
Yoo Jong-pil, the head of the Korea Institute for Startups and Entrepreneurship Development, expressed his will to “establish a policy foundation and strengthen global expansion strategies so that the capabilities of excellent local startups can be effectively revealed in domestic and international ecosystem evaluations.”
Meanwhile, the Startup Promotion Agency participated in the 'Startup Blink Webinar' held at 5 PM on the 20th to introduce the domestic startup ecosystem and had time to interact with representatives of representative startup support organizations from 9 countries*.
- See more related articles
You must be logged in to post a comment.