TIPS, a technology incubator based in Seoul, has attracted a total of 319.6 billion won in private investment.
Short for ‘Tech Incubator for Startups’, the program aims to help promising entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and technology, and has already supported a total of 218 startups over the past three and a half years. The initial investment of 42.9 billion won from investors will be followed by funding of 276.7 billion won at a later stage.
The announcement was made in Gangnam yesterday by the Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA) at the ‘2016 TIPS Convention’, an event that shared the program’s successes over the past year and presented plans for the future. This includes having 1200 startup teams and 50 global “star ventures” pass through TIPS by 2020.
To make this happen, the SMBA plans to expand its involvement in overseas accelerator programs and focus on selecting teams which wish to go global, rather than teams that are concentrated on the domestic market.
“When supporting TIPS from next year, we’ll only help out where there is analysis and strategy for overseas markets,” said SMBA Minister Young-sup Joo. “We are planning to crate a space in Silicon Valley to facilitate globalization of the TIPS program.”
Minister Joo added that the administration would create an environment so that the current generation of entrepreneurs could receive support and venture capital more easily.
