The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Oh Young-joo, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs and Startups) will jointly operate the 'TIPS' program, a technology startup support program, starting this year, with the Korea Angel Investment Association and the Korea Venture Capital Association.
TIPS is a startup support project representing the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, where an operator selected by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups utilizes private sector expertise and capabilities to select startups, and the government provides support in the form of technology development (R&D) and startup commercialization funds. To date, over 3,200 startups have received support, resulting in a total of 15 trillion won in follow-up investments.
According to the venture and startup industry on the 5th, the Korea Angel Investment Association and the Korea Venture Capital Association were selected as the TIPS organizers. TIPS, which began in 2013, had been managed solely by the Korea Angel Investment Association, but this time, the Korea Venture Capital Association joined in as the organizer.
This discussion on re-selecting the TIPS organization was triggered by a point made by the National Assembly last year. In July last year, Rep. Heo Seong-moo of the Democratic Party of Korea pointed out that private organizations were monopolizing government funds. In response, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced a follow-up measure to the “TIPS Next” announced in November of the same year, with the aim of systematically supporting TIPS companies by designating organizations with expertise and capabilities as the organization in charge for the smooth execution of the TIPS business.
At that time, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups also shared its plan to secure publicness and strengthen accountability for business operations by designating the selected operating organizations as public-related organizations after reviewing the requirements. Accordingly, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups began accepting bids for TIPS-hosting organizations on December 31 of last year.
The Korea Angel Investment Association and the Korea Venture Capital Association, which were selected as the TIPS organizers, will carry out tasks such as TIPS research and development (R&D) and operation of related businesses, selection and management of TIPS operators, and operation of programs for TIPS companies.
As the TIPS budget and the number of companies receiving support have increased, the volume is expected to be shared. According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the number of TIPS-supported companies, which was only 15 in the first year of the TIPS project, has increased 60-fold to 900 (including TIPS and Deep Tech TIPS) by 2024. With this selection, there are now two main organizations, so operators who recommend discovering and investing in early-stage startups and matching the government R&D budget will be able to choose one of the two main organizations according to their own strategy.
The Korea Angel Investment Association and the Korea Venture Capital Association will operate for a maximum of six years from this year to 2030. After four years of operation, a two-year extension is expected to be decided through an interim evaluation. The support budget is approximately 2.5 billion won per year, and the full-scale TIPS project is scheduled to begin in April.
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