SME Ministry Provides KRW 20 Billion in Special Guarantees to 15 Pre-Unicorns

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) has selected 15 companies this year through the 'Preliminary Unicorn Special Guarantee' program, aimed at fostering global unicorn companies, thereby discovering the key players in South Korea's innovative growth. These companies are set to accelerate their scale-up, receiving a special guarantee of up to 20 billion KRW. Having been selected after fierce competition with a 5.3:1 ratio, these companies boast an average corporate valuation of 113.4 billion KRW, 23.3 billion KRW in sales, 74 employees, and 35.2 billion KRW in attracted investment. Notably, the overseas payment platform 'Travel Wallet' and the AI search and deep research service 'Liner' are among the representative selected companies. Travel Wallet is revolutionizing global payments with lower fees and faster processing speeds compared to traditional banks, while Liner is proving its world-class standards in AI model reliability evaluation and is actively pursuing expansion into the U.S. market. The MSS plans to further accelerate corporate growth by introducing the 'Performance-Linked Guarantee System' starting this year. This system will provide additional guarantees without separate review to companies that achieve certain milestones in areas such as follow-up investment or sales. Since its launch in 2019, the Preliminary Unicorn program has supported a total of 126 companies with 797.2 billion KRW, achieving remarkable results. Sales of the selected companies increased by 174.0% and employment by 44.7% compared to their initial stages, and 90 companies achieved the remarkable feat of attracting a total of 5.2 trillion KRW in follow-up investments. As a result, 8 companies, including Zigbang, Kurly, Korea Credit Data, and Fadu, grew into unicorn companies, and 13 companies, including Fadu, Wanted Lab, Sensorview, and Jeju Beer, successfully entered the KOSDAQ market, achieving initial public offering (IPO) milestones. The Minister of SMEs and Startups stated that the Preliminary Unicorn program has established itself as a truly effective scale-up program and pledged full support to ensure innovative companies continue to play a key role in economic growth.