The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups) announced on the 7th that it will announce the '2025 Scale-up Tips (General) Corporate Support Plan' to support challenges, innovations, and scale-ups of promising technology-intensive SMEs and ventures.
Scale-up Tips is a project in which the government provides up to KRW 1.2 billion in R&D support for three years to small and medium-sized venture companies in the full-scale growth stage by attracting an investment of KRW 1 billion or more from the operating company, and provides up to KRW 2 billion in funds by investing equity from the mother fund to companies that have created results such as attracting follow-up investment.
Key contents included in this corporate support plan are as follows:
◆ Track subdivision (general/global)
In order to focus on supporting R&D of companies aiming to expand overseas from 2025, a new global track (24 new) has been established that will provide up to KRW 1.5 billion in R&D funds for three years. As support has been strengthened, stronger requirements than the general type, such as attracting a certain amount of overseas investment, are expected to be imposed, and details will be announced separately.
The general project being recruited this time consists of a total of 102 projects, and supports promising small and medium-sized venture companies based on strategic technologies, including 10 fields of ultra-gap, 12 fields of national strategic technology, and carbon neutrality.
◆ Introduction of specialized support system for strategic fields
In order to intensively support R&D in strategic fields such as AI and bio, a specialized support system will be introduced. In 2025, among the existing 24 operating company consortiums, those with outstanding discovery performance and R&D support capabilities in the relevant fields will be designated as ‘specialized operating companies’, and when selecting operating companies in the future, we plan to focus on evaluating specialized capabilities in strategic fields.
Changes will also be introduced to the existing operating consortium to respond to the diverse support needs of businesses. In order to strengthen capabilities and functions, additions and changes to the consortium composition will be permitted, and the evaluation and incentive system for operating companies will also be improved to focus on actual scale-up support performance.
In addition, we encourage each operator to operate a dedicated coordinator to support the company's R&D performance. In addition to the role of project manager (PM), the coordinator is responsible for actively leading cooperation between consortia to ensure that companies performing scale-up tips R&D receive sufficient support.
◆ Strengthening the link between R&D and equity investment
Previously, after receiving upfront investment from the operator, you could choose between R&D or equity investment as a support method. Starting in 2025, the link between the two methods will be strengthened to increase the effectiveness of support, and in order to support the rapidly increasing demand for funding after R&D, the system will be reorganized so that R&D can be performed first, and then equity investment can be supported in line with the company’s growth.
Other detailed information will be provided through online and offline business briefing sessions starting at 2:00 PM on Monday, April 14th. Companies interested in participating in the business can directly inquire with the Scaleup Tips operator (24 consortiums, reference) or the dedicated department (located on the 3rd floor of S5, Yeoksam Tips Town, ☎02-2280-0422/0426).
Meanwhile, over the past three years (2022-2024), a total of 1.5 trillion won has been invested in 379 companies through Scaleup Tips, including both the public and private sectors. Of these, the amount of upfront investment by private operators amounts to approximately 583.3 billion won, and 111 companies (approximately 30%) of the selected companies have attracted approximately 556.7 billion won in follow-up investment from venture capitals and others.
Among the companies that received support from Scale-up Tips, a total of 9 companies have succeeded in initial public offerings (IPOs), showing the full effect of activating private investment in innovative companies and promoting growth.
Park Yong-soon, Director General of Technology Innovation Policy, said, “We have improved the system to create tangible results, such as changing the linked investment method to a method of supporting by linking it to performance,” and “Through innovative R&D support models such as Scale-up Tips, we will strengthen the foundation for small and medium-sized venture companies to challenge technological development in strategic fields and support them to establish themselves as a key growth engine for the national economy.”
- See more related articles
You must be logged in to post a comment.