The Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation (CEO Won-kyung Kim, hereinafter referred to as the Gyeonggi Innovation Center) announced on the 14th that it is recruiting companies to participate in the joint open innovation program '2025 Unicorn Bridge with ITCEN' with IT service group ITCEN Group (Chairman Jin-mo Kang, hereinafter referred to as ITCEN) .
The '2025 Unicorn Bridge with ITcen' program aims to accelerate the growth of startups and connect them to investment and technology commercialization through strategic collaboration with the ITcen Group. In particular, it is operated in a 2Track manner consisting of a strategic investment track and a technology verification track, providing support that is appropriate for the nature and growth stage of the startup.
Starting with the signing of a business agreement between the two companies on March 28, Gyeonggi Innovation Center and ITcen have been jointly preparing an open innovation program, and it is very meaningful that ITcen is conducting its first external open innovation with Gyeonggi Innovation Center.
First, the strategic investment track selects promising startups with innovative technologies in the fields of ▲AI ▲healthcare ▲blockchain ▲SaaS ▲quantum technology ▲cloud ▲robots ▲mobility, and provides opportunities for direct investment by ITCEN and TIPS recommendations.
The application target is startups established within 7 years, and companies selected for the track will receive a total of 600 million won in direct investment from ITCEN, and can secure up to an additional 500 million won in R&D funds through TIPS recommendations while also receiving acceleration from the Gyeonggi Innovation Center.
The second technology verification track is a form of collaboration centered on PoC (technology verification) by selecting startups that meet the technology needs of ITCEN Group affiliates (ITCEN ENTEC, ITCEN CTS, ITCEN CLOIT, ITCEN GLOBAL, CPlatform, ITCEN PNS).
The recruitment areas are ▲AI Agent ▲Teaching and Learning Platform ▲AI Infrastructure and Network ▲AI Platform ▲VectorDB ▲Personal Information Protection ▲B2C Service ▲Security Technology ▲AI-based Healthcare. In addition, new collaboration proposals with ITcen are possible.
Any startup that wishes to collaborate with ITcen can apply. For companies selected for the technology verification track, a PoC support fund of up to 80 million won will be jointly provided by the Gyeonggi Innovation Center and ITcen Group, and follow-up investment reviews by both companies will be conducted after the PoC is completed.
ITcen has established itself as a leading company in the domestic IT industry by demonstrating remarkable growth in the public and private IT service sectors, and is attracting attention by providing innovative solutions in the digital transformation (DX) field and expanding its business by utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as cloud, AI, and big data.
Based on this, in July 24, it was selected as the TIPS operator by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and is also leading the way in activating the startup ecosystem and supporting technological innovation. Based on these achievements, the ITcen Group planned this program to realize the value of mutual growth through collaboration with startups and to create future growth engines together.
An official from the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation said, “This program is a practical model of open innovation where investment and technological collaboration are organically linked,” and added, “We plan to provide generous support together with ITCEN so that startups can leap forward as globally competitive unicorn companies in a short period of time.”
- See more related articles
You must be logged in to post a comment.