COMEUP 2023 presents vision of global startup ecosystem network-What is it specifically?

South Korea’s largest startup event, ‘COMEUP 2023,’ kicked off on the 8th at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul.

The opening ceremony marked the beginning of ‘COMEUP 2023,’ which runs for three days from the 8th to the 10th, and showcased the evolved face of COMEUP as it has grown into an international event.

The opening ceremony was attended by domestic participants, including Yoo Eui-dong, Policy Committee Chairman of the People’s Power, heads of startup-related organizations, and Park Ji-won, CEO of Syndromes, as well as various foreign government organizations and global companies, including Sami bin Ibrahim Al-Hussaini, the head of Saudi SMEs, Abdulaziz Al-Risi, the deputy head of Oman SMEs, Marc-Antoine Jamet, the chairman of Cosmetic Valley, Olivia Hervy, the chief officer of Viva Technology Ecosystem, and Howard Wright, the vice president of AWS Startups.

In addition, this year’s COMEUP saw a visit by a large delegation from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with over half (approximately 60%) of the participants being international startups, and a dedicated ‘Global Community Zone’ was established for about 100 international startups, marking a significant step in COMEUP’s evolution into an international event.

In his welcoming speech, Minister Lee Young proposed a vision of a ‘Global Startup Ecosystem Network’ to the attendees from around the world and invited them to join in its creation.

With the advent of the startup era, there are many startup clusters around the world, such as Silicon Valley in the U.S. and Station F in France, but there is a lack of close interaction between them. The goal is to connect all these global startup clusters into one, centered around Korea.

Specifically, plans were announced to ease startup and employment visa systems to support borderless startups, to create a global fund of around 10 trillion won (approximately $8.4 billion) by 2024, to establish a global startup hub connecting global clusters centered around South Korea, and to implement a digital network that allows startups around the world to interact and cooperate without physical space constraints.

This year’s ‘COMEUP 2023’ event is attended by over 700 people from 35 countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, USA, France, Switzerland, Japan, and Vietnam, and features a variety of programs such as conferences, open innovation, COMEUP Stars, and side events.

The ‘Academic Conference (Conference)’ section, titled ‘Future Talk,’ is structured around startup growth stage themes such as ‘Are You Really Going to Start a Business, Dreamer?’ and ‘Global Expansion, Its Misunderstandings and Truths.’ The conference, which runs for three days, features over 70 speakers on more than 20 topics, starting with Ji-ol Park, the most attention-grabbing musician of the first half of the year and founder of the lifestyle platform ‘Syndromes.’

The second day of the event is designated as Open Innovation Day, with over 20 global companies including Nvidia, Dassault Systemes, Hyundai Motor, and Naver Cloud participating. They will present successful collaboration cases with startups and explore collaboration models, marking the 20th anniversary of the birth of the open innovation concept.

Visitors can also check out the booths of COMEUP Stars, innovative startups representing COMEUP that were selected through a competition rate of 7.4 to 1, and the investment pitching (IR pitching) stage. Business matching with more than 160 venture capital firms (VCs) and corporate venture capital firms (CVCs) from home and abroad will also take place.

In addition, eight domestic and foreign startup support organizations, including the Korean-French Chamber of Commerce, KOICA, GEA, and ASEIC, will participate, introducing various countries’ startup ecosystems and offering a variety of programs and side events over three days.

In particular, in conjunction with the ‘K-Global Cluster with COMEUP’ event held in Seongsu-dong, opportunities for participation have been expanded with theme-based seminars and R&D conferences in the cosmetics, biotech, and tech sectors, such as France’s Cosmetic Valley and Japan’s Shonan I-Park. A shuttle bus will also operate between the event and the main COMEUP venue.

Anyone can visit the ‘COMEUP 2023’ venue through on-site registration, and all events can be viewed through the COMEUP website (www.comeup.org and the COMEUP YouTube channel.

Park Jae-wook, Chairman of the Korea Startup Forum, the organizer of COMEUP, said, “COMEUP 2023 is composed of diverse programs that can convey the vivid voices of startups that move the world. We hope it will be an opportunity to create actual business and networking opportunities as the global startup ecosystem actively interacts.”

Minister Lee Young said, “I hope COMEUP 2023 will be a platform for envisioning new innovations and futures and for startups around the world to interact. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will take the lead in strengthening the role and status of startups worldwide.”