The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 26th that it has finalized the selection of 50 'baby unicorn' corporations with high potential to grow into global unicorns.
The baby unicorn nurturing project is part of the 'global unicorn project' aimed at discovering innovative corporations and supporting them to grow into unicorns with international competitiveness. Since its launch in 2020, a total of 350 corporations have been selected until this year. This year, a total of 217 corporations applied, and the final 50 corporations were selected, recording a competition ratio of approximately 4.3:1.
Of the 50 selected corporations, about 86% (43 corporations) possess technologies in the top 10 deep tech fields such as AI and big data, with an average corporate value of 32.1 billion won, investment attraction amount of approximately 5.61 billion won, revenue of about 4.4 billion won, and around 30 employees.
Sketchsoft, a corporation providing a 3D drawing application service linked with generative artificial intelligence (AI), has also been selected. Sketchsoft allows users to automatically create 3D graphic designs using only 2D pen and touch inputs, generating sales in 120 countries overseas.
The selected corporations will receive support including market development funds (up to 300 million won) and special guarantees from the Technology Guarantee Fund (up to 5 billion won). Starting this year, a 'performance-based guarantee system' has been introduced so that if selected corporations achieve certain results in follow-up investments and sales, additional guarantees will be provided without separate review.
In addition, programs will be operated for international market entry, including participation in local global IR and global technology fairs, running global market entry programs through cooperation with Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and global consulting programs for strategic global market entry.
Minister Oh Youngju noted, 'The baby and preliminary unicorn corporations have shown results such as continuously attracting follow-up investments and successfully undergoing initial public offerings (IPOs) since their selection,' and stated, 'We will steadily expand support so that baby unicorn corporations can leap from being 'preliminary unicorns' to 'global unicorns.'