Interest in Korean Startups
Recently, SBT, one of the top Brazilian broadcasting stations sent journalist Marcelo Torres to the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation (GCCEI), a public accelerator at Pangyo Technovalley in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.
The reason Marcelo came to Korea was to understand how the Korean government and large businesses such as Samsung, LG, KT, etc., are accelerating startups and how large businesses and startups work together. The Brazilian journalist was particularly interested in how the central and local governments work together along with large businesses through GCCE, and how Korean startups are be able to get investments at an early stage without any visible sales performance.
"When the Center opened in March 2015, the sponsor conglomerate didn't know what to do with startups. So they had to encounter many trials and errors in collaboration with startups. As time passed, however, they started to open their eyes and got down to business with startups, beginning to invest in some innovative startups while providing business consultations on how to develop new businesses. No wonder that large businesses came to regard them as partners, not subcontractors," David Sehyeon Baek, Director of GCCEI explained to Marcelo.
Marcelo also explored the IoT lab, Fintech Center, the system of free legal consultation and free office space offering, the co-working space system and 3D printing service for prototypes.
He was given a ripplebuds, the world-first earset with a microphone built-in, and a Bible phone case of Opus One as souvenirs along with an indoor bicycle 'ZOIT' and Claire's air purifier, a hot Korean item in China. He said he would show off the products to people when he returned to his home country.