The Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center , together with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Startup Promotion Agency, has established the 'Medium-Sized Enterprise-Startup Open Innovation Challenge' program to expand the open innovation support ecosystem for startups through the participation of medium-sized enterprises, and is recruiting participating medium-sized enterprises until the 24th.
This program is part of the '2025 Public-Private Cooperation Open Innovation Support Project (hereinafter referred to as the Support Project)', which supports collaboration between demand companies (large, medium, and public enterprises) and startups to activate the open innovation ecosystem. It was newly established this year to establish a support system specialized in collaboration between medium-sized enterprises and startups.
The number of mid-sized companies that have participated in this support project over the past two years is 26% of all demand companies, while 24.7% of mid-sized companies are pursuing new businesses and 93.1% recognize the need for digital transformation. Therefore, the demand for mid-sized companies to participate in open innovation is expected to continue to increase in the future.
This program is a special type of support project designed to promote open innovation between mid-sized companies and startups. It will solicit collaboration demand projects from mid-sized companies and small and medium-sized companies that have graduated from the program and wish to collaborate with startups, and will select approximately 15 companies.
After selecting mid-sized companies, we recruit startups that possess technology or problem-solving capabilities that match the demand task. After recruitment, we support 1:1 meetups with mid-sized companies for startups that pass the document evaluation to promote mutual understanding of the demand task and to establish advanced plans.
Afterwards, through a presentation evaluation, the final 10 collaboration projects between mid-sized companies and startups will be selected and collaboration will be supported. Startups will be provided with up to 120 million won in verification funds per project, as well as consulting, professional training, and networking necessary for the collaboration process, tailored to the project.
Through this collaboration, mid-sized companies will share and support their internal resources with startups, and startups will then use this as a basis for development and commercialization. Ultimately, this will lead to the establishment of a sustainable cooperative system between mid-sized companies and startups, thereby further expanding the open innovation ecosystem for mutual growth.
Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center Director Han In-guk said, “Medium-sized companies are the roots of the economy and are responsible for the foundation of stable growth and employment, and startups create innovation on that foundation.” He added, “We will further strengthen our support for open innovation so that the two can achieve mutual growth through harmony.”
SMEs wishing to participate can check with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, K-Startup website, and Daegu Startup Hub, and for more information, contact the Daegu Creative Economy Innovation Center Open Innovation Team (053-359-3670, oi@ccei.kr).
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