Gwangju City is continuing its tailored support for startups to validate their innovative technologies this year.
This initiative, which began in 2023, offers locations and funding to companies that possess innovative technologies and prototypes but face challenges in validation.
The city has allocated 2.8 billion won to support 43 companies by January of next year. Over the past three years, a total of 103 companies have received assistance.
In 2023, the city held two rounds of applications in May and July, followed by expert evaluations to select the companies to be supported.
Selection criteria included the technical feasibility of the validation technology, the contribution to urban innovation, the suitability of the validation institution, the specificity and efficiency of the validation plan, and the potential for commercialization and dissemination of results.
Among the selected companies, 12 will validate solutions aimed at addressing public and private sector needs, 28 will autonomously select their validation technologies, and 3 will receive only tailored validation locations.
These companies will receive validation costs of up to 60 million won and access to customized validation locations such as university hospitals, urban subway waiting areas, and traditional markets as needed.
Gwangju City expects these companies to enhance their technologies by identifying product errors and additional improvements.
Post-validation support will include assistance for public procurement, participation in technical tours, support for global expansion, and connections to KOICA projects.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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