The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups) announced on the 14th that it has selected 8 organizations, including the Korea Agricultural Technology Promotion Agency, as the main organizations for the '2025 Global Acceleration Support Project' to support overseas expansion and settlement of promising domestic startups.
The 'Global Acceleration Support Project' is a project that supports promising startups by providing domestic and international acceleration programs and overseas expansion funds to support overseas expansion and growth of startups. In accordance with the '22 K-Startup Global Expansion Strategy' and the '23 Startup Korea Comprehensive Plan', it has been reorganized into a pan-ministerial collaboration project, and is promoting customized overseas expansion support specialized by industry and field of startups.
The main organizations (ministries) selected this year and the main business contents are as follows. First, the Korea Agricultural Technology Promotion Agency (MAFRA) supports the entry of food, agtech, and green bio start-ups into Singapore based on its expertise in the agricultural industry. Singapore is a center of finance and investment and a bridgehead for entering the Southeast Asian market, and has an environment suitable for the growth of start-ups in the agricultural and food sector.
The Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIT) is utilizing the strengths of specialized research and development institutions in the land, infrastructure and transport sector to help startups in the land, infrastructure and transport sector enter Germany and Finland. It is promoting technology collaboration with global companies such as Deutsche Bahn, MS, and Nvidia, and exchanges with local startup ecosystems. The Korea-Africa Foundation (MOFA) is supporting climate tech and aging tech startups to enter South Africa and Egypt based on the local African network owned by the institute.
Chungnam Creative Economy Innovation Center (Ministry of Environment) is utilizing its know-how in supporting entry into the European market to help climate tech startups enter Germany. Synergy between the Ministry of Environment’s expertise in the industrial sector and Chungnam Creative Economy Innovation Center’s global network is expected.
There are also new participating ministries this year. The Korea Aerospace Technology Promotion Association (KAIT) is cooperating with a global accelerator specializing in space and aviation to support the advancement of space startups into France, while the Korea Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) is supporting the advancement of deep-tech startups based on intellectual property (IP) into the United States. Accordingly, customized overseas expansion support can be provided to startups in a wider range of fields.
There are two more organizations that support the entry into the US, which has a global startup ecosystem and a high demand for startups. They are the Korea Edutech Industry Association (Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) and the Korea Youth Entrepreneurship Foundation (Ministry of Education). Based on their expertise in fostering startups in specialized fields, the two organizations plan to lead the entry into the US of edutech, service platform/big data, and intelligent robot startups, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will recruit 140 startups to participate in the project from April 14 to May 8. Startups wishing to participate can apply online through the K-Startup website .
Kyung-won Cho, Director of Startup Policy, said, “In the midst of rapid technological development and rapidly changing domestic and international environments, the resources of one ministry are limited, and collaboration across government agencies is essential. We will continue to strengthen collaboration so that we can utilize the excellent capabilities of other ministries and the private sector to help startups advance overseas and grow.”
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