Over the years, the Indian startup industry has been able to establish a reputation of its own all around the world. Out-of-the box ideas, hunger to succeed and passion to achieve the unachievable is what makes the Indian entrepreneurs stand out from the crowd. In fact, such has been the wave of India’s entrepreneurial success that the country of Korea is now gearing up to attract some of the entrepreneurial magic on to its own land.
The country has recently started taking in applications for its much anticipated K-Startup Grand Challenge. According to experts, the challenge could serve as an opportunity for Indian tech startups to enter the flourishing Korean market and break into a global customer base.
Accepting applications only till 14th June, the challenge has already successfully raked in more than 500 applications. Once all the applications are locked in, an evaluation committee will review them based on a number of factors such as the feasibility of business model, market opportunity and the team spirit etc. The evaluation committee will comprise of top business leaders, marketing experts and tech gurus.
Out of the numerous applications received, the committee will select the Top 20, who will then get a chance to be part of a six-month acceleration programme, and receive a whopping $33,000 support each in funding. In addition to this, the final four day will be seen receiving an additional $100,000 funding. During the entire time of the project, the selected startups will have the opportunity to get selected for investments by the top South Korean based accelerators and the venture capital firms.
According to a statement given by Kyung Hwan Lee, Executive Director of National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) at Korea-India SW Cooperation Center, “Korea can be regarded as a test-bed for the Asian market. If a company has a center in Korea, it’s easier for them to expand to other Asian companies.”
According to Lee, there are several factors that distinguishes their Accelerator program from those of its US counterparts. According to him, Korea is blessed with the world’s best network infrastructure. Over 97% of the Korean land enjoys high-speed internet connectivity. Further, using all this, they have successfully created fascinating business models for Asia and global markets. In addition to all, the Korean government is very enthusiastic about the whole startup ecosystem and intends to invest over $3.8 bn in it over period of next three years.
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