2025 Selection of 60 Promising Small Businesses

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) successfully concluded the extensive selection process for the '2025 Strong Small Business Growth Support Program,' aimed at small business owners with innovative ideas, selecting a final 60 companies. This program is a key initiative designed to help small business owners collaborate with creators and startups to advance their existing products and services to the next level. It operates across five customized categories—Lifestyle, Local Brand, Long-standing Small Business, Global, and Online Seller—to support diverse growth. In this program, which saw a heated competition with a whopping 7,147 companies applying, MSS selected 160 companies through the first audition last May, providing initial commercialization funds of up to 60 million KRW per company. Subsequently, through a final audition in August, the final 60 companies were carefully selected, and these companies will receive up to an additional 40 million KRW in commercialization funds. Furthermore, by opening up opportunities for attracting private investment and entering overseas markets, the program plans to support small business owners in making a quantum leap. The grand prize in the integrated category went to Banseok Industries from Jeongeup, Jeollabuk-do. Under its 'Olgok' brand, the company developed a smooth peanut butter smoothie and capsule-type peanut butter using Gochang peanuts, already garnering attention in overseas markets. The integrated top excellence award was taken by Pasteles from Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, which presented an innovative spray-type oral care spray for pets. The roster of top excellence awardees in each category is also impressive. In the Local Brand category, Girin Company from Seosan, Chungcheongnam-do, was selected for transforming Seosan gamtae (seaweed) into diverse processed foods. In the Lifestyle category, Yul Art from Gangjin, Jeollanam-do, was chosen for reinterpreting traditional folk paintings into over 1,300 types of products. The top excellence award in the Long-standing Small Business category went to Morning Farm from Jeongeup, Jeollabuk-do, which conveniently commercialized blueberries in stick form. And in the Global category, Simmi from Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, is targeting the global market with its K-clothing brand 'NACHE'. A representative who participated in this final audition shared their thoughts, stating, "It was a valuable time to challenge ourselves, explore new directions, and strengthen our resolve." Lee Dae-geon, Director-General for Small Business Policy at MSS, stated, "This event demonstrated that small business owners equipped with entrepreneurship can leap forward to become strong small businesses," and further emphasized, "Moving forward, we will spare no effort in policy support to discover more strong small business owners and help them grow into LICORNS (Living-innovation-unicorns)." The active role of strong small business owners, who will lead the future of South Korea, is highly anticipated.