For Global Expansion of Startup Ecosystem

Park Woo-hyuk (left), vice president of Shinhan Financial Group and Said Amidi, head of Plug and Play, pose for a commemorative photo after signing a partnership agreement.

Shinhan Financial Group announced on Nov. 12 that it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Plug and Play, a global accelerator, to expand its startup ecosystem globally.

Plug and Play is an accelerator that has fostered global unicorns such as PayPal, Dropbox, Lending Club, and N26. It is operating in 30 cities around the world including Silicon Valley in the United States, and has fostered more than 2,000 startups in cooperation with about 300 big business partners. In particular, it is investing in the largest number of startups in Silicon Valley using its extensive network with about 200 venture capital (VC) companies.

Shinhan Financial Group has already begun cooperation with Plug and Play in Indonesia, but through this MOU, it will help startups being fostered by Shinhan Futures Lab advance into developed countries, including the United States, Japan and Singapore.

Through this collaboration, the two companies will actively push forward with the following -- sharing their know-how in startup sourcing and nurturing programs, commercializing business items with corporate and VC partners, selecting and investing in Silicon Valley startups to be nurtured by Plug and Play, and supporting companies fostered by Plug and Play in the Korea market.

Shinhan Futures Lab entered the Vietnamese market in 2016 with a startup acceleration program launched in May 2015. After the launch of Shinhan Futures Lab in April, the number of its nurtured companies expanded from 20 to 50, its investment scale from 8.3 billion won to 15.8 billion won. Moreover, the lab held the Human Job Fair for talent matching support in July and entered Indonesia in September, recording its rapid expansion.

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