The purpose is to actively find candidate companies in cooperation with the private sector and the government to foster baby-preliminary-K-unicorn. The goal is to launch a three-stage growth program in earnest and shift the ‘level-up’-oriented policy after starting a businessThe Korean government will discover and fully support “Baby Unicorn” companies. The move is aimed at thicker promising candidates with the goal of surpassing 20 unicorn companies by 2022. The private sector and the government will find promising companies that are likely to grow into unicorns together and focus their support on step-by-step venture scale-up. The three-stage unicorn growth program, ranging from “Baby Unicorn → Preliminary Unicorn → K-Unicorn,” will be in full operation.
I’m going to select “Baby Unicorn”…On the 31st, Lee Young, Minister of SMEs and Startups, has been playing a role in utilizing his experience and characteristics since taking office “Last year, if a preliminary unicorn track was newly established and guaranteed 10 billion won, we plan to expand it further this year to select and support baby unicorns,” he said. “We will fund baby unicorns and operate growth programs in detail so that baby unicorns can become unicorns beyond preliminary unicorn companies.”The baby unicorn is part of the Korean government’s K-Unicorn project. The K-Unicorn project is a project that intensively discovers and fosters unicorn candidate companies in a public-private partnership to enter the four major venture powerhouses and create 20 unicorn companies by 2022. It has a scale-up system to support the leap to a unicorn.Sooner or later, the government-level baby unicorn selection and support plan will be confirmed and announced. In other words, a scale-up-oriented venture growth program similar to that suggested in the “Venture Scale-Up National Competitiveness” series will be operated.Companies selected as baby unicorns will focus on various support, including jump-up funds. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said in an earlier New Year’s business report that it plans to focus more than half of the $1.43 billion worth of venture funds to be created this year, or about $700 million, on leap-stage companies.This suggests intensive fostering from the very beginning.
The selection will be centered on promising small and medium-sized companies in the leap stage of DNA fields such as encouraging data (D), network (N), and artificial intelligence (A), and BIG3 fields such as system semiconductors, future cars, and bio. Major evaluation indicators include the possibility of future growth of related industries, the technological superiority of companies, and competitiveness in the global market. A large investment of around $5 million per company can be expected.
Companies recognized for their growth potential after being selected as baby unicorn companies will become prospective unicorn companies. The government will provide up to 10 billion won in guarantees. As market verification has been completed through venture investment, large-scale financing from the financial sector may be possible through government guarantees.The “K-Unicorn Supporters” will also be fully expanded so that companies selected as preliminary unicorns after baby unicorns can attract large-scale additional investments to grow into K-Unicorns. K-Unicorn Supporters is a program that shares promising companies to foster the nation’s best venture capital (VC) unicorn and collaborates jointly for large-scale investment.In the future, support for start-ups and venture companies will also be promoted in consideration of mid- to long-term scale-up rather than simply expanding the number of companies.
Chang Young Choi
US ASIA JOURNAL
