Foundation Laid for Deep Tech Powerhouse; 197 Breakthrough Startups Launched

On the 13th, the '2025 Super Gap Startup Renovation Day' event was successfully held at the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul hotel, commemorating the innovative leap of deep tech startups poised to become the main players in Korea's future economy. Hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, approximately 300 startup representatives, VCs, and global corporate officials gathered to share the remarkable achievements of the 'Super Gap Startup 1000+ Project,' the government's sole multi-year deep tech commercialization support program, and to announce new global scale-up strategies. The 'Super Gap Startup 1000+ Project' is an ambitious initiative to discover and intensively support over 1,000 outstanding deep tech startups in 10 new industrial sectors, including AI and system semiconductors, over five years from 2023 to 2027. As of last year, 407 companies had been selected, and this year, 182 new companies joined, overcoming a high competition rate of 13.7:1, bringing the total number of supported companies to 589. Selected companies receive up to 600 million won in commercialization funds over three years and up to 600 million won in R&D funds through separate evaluations, laying the groundwork for growth. In particular, 15 companies that have already grown through the innovative startup package program were selected as 'Beyond-Super Gap' beneficiaries and will receive follow-up support of up to 1 billion won in global scale-up funds over two years. In just two years since the project began, remarkable achievements have emerged. Among the 407 selected companies, two, including 'Rebellions,' have achieved unicorn status, and a staggering 51 companies are preliminary unicorns with a corporate value exceeding 100 billion won. Compared to before receiving support, these companies' sales increased by an average of 4.4%, employment by 18.5%, and cumulative investment attraction by a phenomenal 43.2%. Furthermore, through investment attraction and scale-up specialized programs, 7 startups attracted a large-scale investment of 32 billion won, 9 companies successfully listed on KOSDAQ, and 35 companies won innovation awards at CES 2024 and 2025, proving their potential on the global stage. On this day, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced three new support policies to accelerate the entry of super gap startups into the global market, opening up new horizons. First, the 'Super Gap Link-up' program will actively support market expansion, investment attraction, and global expansion by strengthening cooperation between anchor institutions such as large corporations and startups in four fields: bio-health, future mobility, robotics, and eco-friendly/energy. Second, the 'Super Gap VC Membership' council, composed of 20 VCs/CVCs with deep tech funds, will connect startups with the investment ecosystem by providing regular investment attraction events, open innovation opportunities, and networking. Third, the 'Tech-IPO Connect' program, consisting of 8 large and SME/venture-specialized securities firms, will focus on supporting the successful IPOs of super gap startups, thereby assisting their entry into the capital market. During the event, Minister Oh Young-ju presented plaques to 10 representative super gap startups, including 'MangoBoost' in the system semiconductor sector. This was followed by vision presentations from Kim Joo-young, CEO of 'HyperExcel,' which successfully scaled up, and Lee Se-young, CEO of 'Wrtn Technologies,' a newly selected company, receiving an enthusiastic response from attendees. Minister Oh Young-ju stated, "Although the Super Gap Project has generated many achievements over the past two years, the field is requesting even more support," expressing a strong commitment to "continue to comprehensively support various policies so that Korea's deep tech startups can leverage the Super Gap Project to emerge as global unicorns." In the current situation of intensifying global technological hegemony competition, it remains to be seen whether Korean deep tech startups, backed by such strong support, can establish themselves as a new driving force of national competitiveness and lead the world.