100 Pass First Round of 'Everyone's Startup' Social Venture League... 17.9 to 1 Competition Ratio

33 Aspiring Entrepreneurs and 67 Startup Companies Selected

One hundred aspiring entrepreneurs and startup companies have passed the first stage of the government-led social venture development project.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 28th that it had selected 100 candidates who passed the first document screening of the "Everyone's Startup: Social Innovation Social Venture League."

"Everyone's Startup: Social Innovation Social Venture League" is a support project designed to discover entrepreneurs with technologies or ideas capable of addressing five urgent social challenges: gaps in care services, employment, energy efficiency improvement, productivity enhancement for small businesses and SMEs using artificial intelligence (AI), and promotion of the resource circulation. Those discovered will be nurtured as social ventures.

The open call, held for three weeks from July 30 to August 19, attracted a total of 1,788 participants, including 905 aspiring entrepreneurs and 883 startup companies. The competition ratio for the first document screening was 17.9 to 1, surpassing the previous "First Everyone's Startup Project" ratio of 12.6 to 1.

Everyone's Startup logo. Ministry of SMEs and Startups

The document screening evaluated applicants' solution proposals based on five criteria: specificity of the social issue (20 points), necessity to resolve the issue (20 points), alignment with support themes (10 points), appropriateness of the proposed solution (30 points), and social value and impact (20 points). As a result, a total of 100 candidates were selected, including 33 aspiring entrepreneurs and 67 startup companies.

Among the 67 startup companies, social ventures accounted for five (7.5%), (prospective) social enterprises for three (4.5%), and venture companies for twenty-six (38.8%), with many recognized for their social value and innovation being selected.

By field, "addressing gaps in community care" had the highest representation at 28 candidates (28.0%). Outstanding proposals included vision AI-based care behavior recognition and data construction, management of existing facilities using patch-type AI, and river waste management using satellite imagery in conjunction with AI—demonstrating a strong focus on leveraging AI technologies to solve societal issues.

Each of the 100 applicants who passed the document screening will receive 2 million won to support impact activities. After a second presentation screening scheduled for September 10–11, approximately 40 candidates (or companies) will be selected, each receiving focused mentoring worth 5 million won for solution enhancement and on-site applicability evaluation.

The final ten or so candidates (or companies) will be chosen during a public presentation held at the "2026 Venture Week" in December, and will be eligible for commercialization funding of up to 150 million won.

No Yongseok, First Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "We will spare no policy support to help entrepreneurs tackling social problems grow into social ventures that combine innovation and growth potential."

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