Recognized for Efforts to Cooperate with Startups

Ha Ji-hyun, head of Shinhan Bank Europe, poses for a photo after receiving the Open Innovation Challenger award of the Corporate Startup Stars Awards.

Shinhan Financial Group announced on Dec. 17 that it has become the first Asian financial company to be awarded in the Open Innovation Challenger category of the Corporate Startup Stars Awards (CSS Awards).

The CSS Awards is a prestigious annual prize launched under the European Commission’s Startup Europe Partnership initiative in 2016 in recognition of the world’s most active corporates working with startups and identifying worldwide best practices in corporate-startup collaboration.

The nomination process went global in 2020 thanks to a partnership consolidated between Mind the Bridge and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The awards recognize 50 global companies each year -- 25 as Global Corporate Startup Stars and 25 as Global Open Innovation Challengers.

Shinhan Financial Group was recognized as a Global Open Innovation Challenger for its efforts to run Shinhan Square Bridge, the group’s startup development platform, and support exchanges between large domestic companies and startups through various open innovation programs.

“Shinhan Financial Group has made continuous efforts to create a startup ecosystem, and its hard work has won recognition,” a Shinhan Financial Group official said. “We will do our best to systematically foster and cooperate with startups.”

Meanwhile, Shinhan Financial Group has been operating Shinhan Square Bridge, a startup innovation growth platform, in major cities across the country, including Seoul, Incheon, and Jeju, as part of the mid- to long-term innovation financial plan Triple-K Project since 2019, and helping startups’ global expansion and their growth into Korean unicorn companies.

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