South Korea, a haven for business start-ups
Opportunities will be provided for entrepreneurs under the "K – Start-up Grand Challenge competition” of South Korea to display their start-ups to enter the South Korean market in order to expand their reach to global customers. The project is conducted and financed by the Korean government. The global start- up event is open to technology- based start- ups having a prototype or product service catering to various industries.
Caleb Kyung Hwan Lee, Executive Director of the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) Korea -India SW Co-operation Center told a news conference in Colombo recently that the NIPA this year expects 50 selected teams to be invited to South Korea to participate in an accelerated programme where 25 teams will be further selected out of the lot for the final competition.Last year 2,400 start-ups from 124 countries joined the programme. "We expect to see several path-breaking ideas and innovations in the K-Startup Grand Challenge 2017. The purpose of this event is to promote vigorous collaboration and exchange of ideas between domestic and foreign start ups." He said in recent years a considerable number of major Korean companies have expressed their willingness to collaborate with foreign start-ups. South Korea is an ideal location for start-ups due to its convenient location in East Asia. The South Korean government has spent more than US$2 billion each year since 2013 and plans to further invest nearly $3.7 billion in the start-up industry.
Hrishikesh Halekote Shivanna, Director - Digital Marketing Yorke Communications Pvt Ltd of Bangalore affiliated to the project, said that this is a global competition financed and conducted by South Korea for the second time. "As of today we are in the middle of the application process and the final day to submit applications will be on June 14. The Republic of Korea has excellent relationship with Sri Lanka where foreign ministers from both countries visited each other."
He said South Korea is the world’s most connected country with 95 per cent being covered by high speed Wi-Fi. It also has the fastest average Internet connection in the world and the highest number of broadband services per capita. The reason for hosting global startups in South Korea was because of the country's infrastructure globally.
The "K -Startup Grand Challenge” is sponsored by some of the world’s largest companies such as Samsung, Hyundai, LG Lotte, GS, etc. "The potential to work with such large companies is great where Google even had set up its Korea campus this year. Last year three start- ups were given patented rights to operate in South Korea."