Data Voucher Breaks All-Time Competition Record, Proving Immense Popularity

**2025 Data Voucher Program: 460 Innovative Companies Selected After Overcoming Record-Breaking Competition!** The Korea Data Agency (K-Data) has finalized the selection of 460 demand-side companies to participate in the 2025 Data Voucher Support Program. A staggering 4,699 companies applied, resulting in an unprecedented competition rate of 10.2:1, which proves the strong desire of companies for data-driven innovation. This 2025 program has been fully reorganized into an 'integrated voucher' format, encompassing the entire process from data planning and design to collection, processing, analysis, and utilization, thereby significantly expanding the scope of support. Companies will now receive integrated support for all stages necessary for data-driven business model innovation and new product/service development. Looking at the selected companies, manufacturing accounted for the largest proportion at 17.6%, followed by the medical/health (15.9%) and culture (15.7%) sectors. Notably, this program introduces a 'social equity quota system.' By allocating 40% of the selection quota to youth enterprises and regional enterprises respectively, and 5% to micro-small business owners, which is introduced for the first time this year, one can see the Agency's strategic commitment to fostering the growth of youth enterprises, narrowing the data utilization gap between the Seoul metropolitan area and other regions, and strengthening the data acquisition and utilization capabilities of micro-small business owners. Discussions and matching of projects between the selected demand-side companies and data supply companies will commence in early May, with the full-scale Data Voucher Support Program scheduled to begin in June.