[Exclusive] Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Preliminary Startup Package to Be Absorbed into Everyone's Startup Next Year

Considering Overlap Among Beneficiaries and Budget Constraints

Unified Support Program for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Early Startup Package to Operate Without Track Distinction

The “Pre-Startup Package,” a support program by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups for prospective entrepreneurs, will be integrated into “Everyone’s Startup” beginning next year. This is a measure to streamline the application window for startup support by absorbing the Pre-Startup Package into Everyone’s Startup, taking into account issues such as overlapping beneficiaries and challenges in securing sufficient funding.

Prime Minister Han Seongsuk attended and gave a congratulatory speech at the launch ceremony of the First Cohort of Everyone's Startup held at SVC Seoul in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on June 16. Photo by Yoon Dongju

According to government sources on July 27, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups is pursuing a reform that will merge the Pre-Startup Package program into Everyone's Startup and operate the two programs as a unified initiative.

The Pre-Startup Package is a program for individuals who have not yet registered as a corporation, supporting them in the process of starting a business. It selects prospective entrepreneurs with a business plan or business model and provides mentorship that focuses on management. Everyone’s Startup also targets pre-startup entrepreneurs, but places greater emphasis on the originality of ideas. Operating institutions select about 5,000 candidates at the preliminary screening stage (with 10,000 planned for the second cohort), who then compete in a tournament format, with the eventual winner receiving a KRW 500 million prize and funding for commercialization.

Since the introduction of Everyone’s Startup, the Pre-Startup Package has been scaled back. At the beginning of this year, the recruit size was dramatically reduced to only 300 participants, compared to 810 in the previous year, and the commercialization fund also decreased from KRW 80 million to KRW 40 million. Meanwhile, the number of applicants increased from 11,952 last year to 14,816 this year, leading to even fiercer competition.

Once support for prospective entrepreneurs is consolidated under Everyone’s Startup, both the number of recruits and applicants is expected to grow. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to recruit 10,000 participants for the second cohort of Everyone's Startup through a supplementary budget in the second half of this year, and also intends to further segment the competition leagues. A ministry official stated, “Although the two programs shared the same purpose, there were operational differences. Now, both will be integrated into the organization that operates Everyone's Startup.”

The key concern is minimizing confusion for founders preparing for the Pre-Startup Package. Many of the main agencies that run the Pre-Startup Package also participate as operating bodies for Everyone's Startup; because dedicated personnel for Everyone’s Startup were often hired with the Pre-Startup Package budget and involved in nurturing selected participants, the integration of the two programs could potentially impact operations.

The “Early-Startup Package,” a program supporting entrepreneurs who have launched a company within the past three years, will continue to run as a separate project from Everyone’s Startup, but there will be changes to the recruitment method. Previously, it operated with separate “general” and “deep tech” tracks, but starting next year, the tracks will be merged. The ministry is also considering reducing the recruitment scale from the current 614 companies to 520 starting next year.

The Early-Startup Package provides business funding, early-stage investment, and Proof-of-Concept (PoC) validation support to promising startups with products or technologies within three years of incorporation. The Ministry is considering a restructuring so that companies that demonstrate higher performance will receive additional funding. Since the Early-Startup Package produces many successful startups, the ministry plans to strengthen intensive support and bounce-up programs, linking these to follow-up initiatives to help these startups “scale up.”

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