List of 160 Lycon Companies Selected at 33:1 Odds

160 prospective LICORNs, poised to present a new vision for 'Strong Small Business Owners,' have been selected after fierce competition and are drawing attention. These businesses, discovered through the first round audition of the 'Strong Small Business Owner Growth Support Program' hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, embody the government's commitment to helping small business owners rooted in lifestyle and local culture leap forward as innovative companies with global competitiveness, all under the goal of LICORN, an acronym for 'Lifestyle & Local Innovation uniCORN.' This year, a staggering 7,147 small business owners applied, recording a high competition rate of 33:1, thus proving immense interest in the program. After rigorous in-depth evaluations and the first round audition, a total of 160 businesses had the honor of being finally selected across four categories: Lifestyle, Local Brand, Long-standing Small Business Owners, and Global. The selected businesses span diverse fields, from traditional market vendors to food manufacturers, agricultural corporations, and fashion and beauty companies, with their unique ideas, competitive products/services, and potential for growth into enterprises being recognized. The 160 selected businesses will receive up to 60 million won in commercialization funds for product and service development to grow into LICORNs. Not stopping there, they are also granted eligibility to participate in the 'Strong Small Business Owner Final Pitching Competition,' which will offer an additional commercialization fund of up to 40 million won, thus laying the groundwork for even greater growth. Notably, starting this year, the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) will actively support the challenges of strong small business owners through networking with large corporations, win-win distribution sales events, and co-hosting the final audition. Collaboration with large corporations is expected to provide a powerful wing for small business owners to expand into the global market. A representative of a participating small business owner remarked, expressing overwhelming anticipation, "Until yesterday, I was a vendor selling webfoot octopus in a traditional market, but now I dream of becoming a food company that develops new sauces and exports them worldwide." Lee Dae-geon, Director-General for Small Business Policy, emphasized that the selected businesses are "Korea's new growth engines that will expand globally in the lifestyle and cultural sector with entrepreneurship and creative ideas." He further stated the MSS's ambition: "The MSS will foster creative, entrepreneurial small business owners into enterprises, and furthermore, transform them into LICORNs – world-class lifestyle innovation companies and local brands." The final audition, where one can directly witness the future of Korea's lifestyle and cultural innovation, will be grandly held from August 25th to 28th at Ivex Studio near Gwangmyeong Station. The performance of the new LICORNs to emerge from this stage is already highly anticipated.