The Korea Startup Forum (Chairman Jae-Wook Park, hereinafter referred to as KSF), the organizing organization of the global startup festival COMEUP, announced that COMEUP 2023, which was held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) for three days from November 8 to 10, attracted about 66,000 people. It was announced on the 13th that it ended successfully, recording the highest number of online and offline visitors (number of people) ever.
'COMEUP 2023', which celebrated its 5th anniversary this year, has achieved international growth by unfolding as a global festival where innovation ecosystem stakeholders from 35 countries at home and abroad come together. In addition, it laid the foundation for evolving into a platform that helps promising startups grow by further strengthening accelerator, and showed an upgraded aspect by introducing new attempts such as building an open innovation community and establishing a business matching system.
A total of 35 countries participate from Europe to Africa, the Middle East, and Asia! Laying the foundation for exchange and cooperation with startups around the world
COMEUP 2023 involves startups, investors, government agencies, global companies, large corporations, and medium-sized enterprises from 35 countries around the world, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the United States, France, Austria, Hong Kong, Senegal, and Cambodia, collaborating with the domestic ecosystem. It was meaningful in expanding the framework for global mutual exchange. Olivia Hervy, Chief Ecosystem Officer of the French startup festival 'Viva Technology', Susan Marshall, Director of NVIDIA, a global AI semiconductor company that recently expanded into the Korean startup market, and Howard Wright of AWS. William Bao Bean, Vice President of the Startup Division and CEO of SOSV, along with global companies and related organizations such as BMW, Microsoft, The French Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) also participated, adding to the excitement of the festival.
In particular, the newly established Global Community Zone operated booths and a presentation-only stage for participating teams from 18 countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to enhance understanding of the global startup ecosystem and expand opportunities for information exchange and cooperation. UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri and Saudi Arabian Minister of SMEs and Startups Sami bin Ibrahim Al-Hussaini, who visited Korea for COMEUP 2023, attended various sessions on the 8th and 9th to discuss Korea and Discussions on startup cooperation continued. In addition, startups from North America, Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia, including those from the United States, France, Senegal, Uganda, Laos, and Cambodia, engaged in passionate pitching and networking activities, drawing great attention from participants who visited the site throughout the three days.
Meaningful presentations were also made regarding policy directions for the Korean startup ecosystem to take a leap forward in the global market. Korea Startup Forum, Asan Nanum Foundation, D-Camp, and Startup Alliance are organizing 2023 STARTUP KOREA! Policy Proposal Presentation: Global Openness of Korea's Startup Ecosystem' session was held to diagnose the level of global openness of the Korean startup ecosystem and suggest practical policy directions.
Solidarity with the ‘real’ voices of startup entrepreneurs! Strengthening open innovation with large corporations and medium-sized companies!
The 'Future Talk' program, a conference session, received favorable reviews as domestic and foreign entrepreneurs told honest and bold stories based on concerns they had not talked about before. Starting with singer Zior Park, who appeared on stage as Park Ji-won, CEO of lifestyle platform SyndromeZ, about 70 people including SOCAR CEO Park Jae-wook, Lunit Chairman Baek Seung-wook, Law & Company Vice President Jeong Jae-seong, HYBE COO Kim Tae-ho, and 10X Innovation Lab CEO Klaus Wehage. Domestic and foreign speakers spoke about each stage of startup growth, such as ‘It’s a different world after IPO’, ‘There is no failed exit, only each person has his or her own path’, ‘Go beyond regulations to the path of real growth’, ‘Creating a global startup in a developing country’, etc. We gained sympathy from visitors by sharing various concerns and experiences on major issues that arise.
In addition, Microsoft, Wrtn Technologies, etc. held in-depth discussions by sharing insights on the latest technological issues related to Chat GPT and generative AI, which have been hot topics in the industry since the beginning of this year.
The second day, held as 'Open Innovation Day' to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the birth of the open innovation concept, attracted attention with the participation of startups, large corporations seeking new innovations, and global companies. The session, which opened with the theme of Open Innovation 2.0: 20th Anniversary and a New Way Forward by Lee Jong-hoon, CEO of xplor Investment, Lee Sung-hwa, GS Retail vice president, Shin Sung-woo, vice president of Hyundai Motor Group, and CJ Investment team lead Kim Ju-hee, focused on the importance of Google's support for female entrepreneurs. , Shinhan Futures Lab Japan and Shinhan Venture Investment's guidelines for startups preparing to enter the Japanese market were discussed. In addition, it introduces cases of successful collaboration between global companies such as NVIDIA, Startup Junkie, Naver Cloud, Kyobo Life Insurance, Evezary, MODUSIGN, and Ably, as well as large, medium-sized and small businesses, and startups, raising the possibility of discovering new growth engines in the future. raised expectations.
‘COMEUP’ evolves beyond an event into a platform for the global growth of startups
COMEUP Stars 2023, which completely revamped the startup selection and mentoring program with the goal of discovering and nurturing early-stage companies, also ended the fierce pitching race with this event. About 80 teams, including the Academy League, the Rookie League, and the Rocket League, for the (preliminary) initial startups that were introduced for the first time this year, gave passionate pitching. In particular, the pitching in the finals and finals of the Rookie League, which was held as a tournament, heightened the tension and made people sweat. I made him hold it. At the 'COMEUP Stars 2023 Awards' held on the last day, 10 companies were selected as excellent pitching teams: △Lansik △Market of Materials △Star Pickers △STEMDEN △AGMO △allmytour △INTEKMEDI △FLOYD △Hopae △Home Check Among these, Intechmedi achieved the feat of being selected as the best company after comprehensive preliminary and on-site evaluations.
In addition, the company has strengthened its role in promoting investment by continuously connecting startups and investment companies through the online business matching platform that has been in operation since the beginning of the year. In line with its title as a global startup festival, it increased opportunities for online and offline meetings between the two parties without restrictions of borders, time, or space, and as a result, about 1,000 cases of preliminary and on-site business matching were achieved. Biz matching will continue even after the event ends.
Sungjin Choi, Chairman of COMEUP Executive Committee, said, “The overall number of visitors to COMEUP 2023 has increased, but it is especially encouraging that the number of on-site visitors and global participants has increased significantly.” He added, “As we have taken a full-fledged leap forward as a global festival that connects the global startup ecosystem, we will continue to promote the startup ecosystem in the future.” “We will continue to serve as a medium for expansion,” he said.
Meanwhile, COMEUP 2023 can be viewed again through the YouTube Come Up channel at a later date.