Jump-up Program for Small Businesses to Medium-sized Enterprises to Be Revamped with Stage-by-Stage Growth Segmentation

Ministry of SMEs and Startups, KOSME to Pursue Segmented Support Starting Next Year

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will revamp its 'Jump-up' program, which helps small businesses expand into new industries and markets in order to grow into mid-sized enterprises, starting next year. There are plans to subdivide support recipients according to different stages of growth.

According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and other relevant agencies on July 7, the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency commissioned a research project earlier this month to upgrade the operation of the Jump-up program. The goal is to establish detailed policy support criteria tailored to each stage of growth.

The Jump-up program, implemented in 2025, supports small businesses with growth potential to expand into new businesses and grow into mid-sized enterprises. The program aimed to support 500 companies over five years, including 100 companies in its first cohort last year and another 100 selected this year.

As of 2023, only 0.08% of small businesses advanced to mid-sized status, while the number of companies that reverted from mid-sized back to small businesses increased from 197 in 2017 to 547 in 2023.

*Number of Companies Returning from Mid-sized to Small-sized Enterprises (Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Bank of Korea)

Number of companies reverting from mid-sized to small businesses from 2020 to 2023 (Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Bank of Korea)

As of 2023, there are 8.3 million small businesses, but only 135,000 (1.6%) are classified as medium enterprises (with a three-year average sales of at least 150 billion won). There are only 6,000 mid-sized enterprises, representing just 0.08% of all companies. In response, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups has been running the Jump-up program for medium enterprises in their seventh year of business to help small businesses with growth potential scale up.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency plan to select support recipients by categorizing them according to growth stages, such as sales, assets, and employment size. For example, companies may be grouped into sales brackets of 10 billion, 50 billion, and 100 billion won, with support provided at each stage. The number of companies supported each year, as well as the budget and staffing, will be recalculated to suit each stage.

There are also plans to analyze both participating companies and the outcomes of the program. Until now, the program has consisted of four components: directing, open vouchers, networking, and policy linkage. Participating companies receive scale-up strategies and management or technology consulting from global consulting firms and research institutes, with 70% to 100% of the costs covered through open vouchers. In addition, vouchers of up to 250 million won per year (for up to three years) are provided to cover up to 70% of the costs for commercialization, marketing, and prototype development. The Ministry is considering adjusting the amount of support according to the business stage of the recipients.

An official from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups stated, "This program is focused on giving companies a second chance, so we are planning to move from the current single-stage support to a three-stage system, enabling companies to jump up through each phase and ultimately grow into mid-sized enterprises."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.