Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development (KISED, Director Yong-Moon Kim) announced that 20 promising Korean startups participated in the “SLUSH 2022” held in Helsinki, Finland from November 17th (Thurs. local time) to the 18th (Friday) and laid the groundwork for entry into the European market through networking with startups, investors, and buyers.
‘SLUSH’ is the main global startup exhibition in Northern Europe held since 2008 where startups from all over the world and influential investors from Europe and Finland meet.
In order to create practical results from participating in the exhibition, Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development (KISED) has been running on and offline, one-on-one mentoring programs with local experts to improve the English pitching ability of participating startups and to verify the market suitability of products and services for four months since July.
The 20 startup companies that participated in “SLUSH 2022” were able to pave the way to enter the European market by participating in company promotion run in the K-STARTUP hall during the exhibition period, their own ‘K-STARTUP Demo Day’ side event, and professional investor networking using the match making tool.
As a part of the coverage of the joint planning, Aving News and Le Café du Geek, a French tech startup media, conducted an on-site interview with senior staff Hyo-Jeong Kim of KISED, who participated in the SLUSH 2022, the largest startup event in Northern Europe.
Q. Can you introduce KISED?
A. Senior staff Hyo-Jeong Kim : KISED is a government agency and an affiliated organization of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups that supports Korean startups. It supports startups in various ways such as commercialization funds for prototype development of startups, mentoring programs for startup education, and programs for promoting overseas market openings.
Q. How did KISED come to participate in this SLUSH event?
A. Senior staff Hyo-Jeong Kim : Domestic startups wish to enter the market in various countries, but of those startups, we decided to participate in this year’s SLUSH with the ones who wish to enter the markets in Northern Europe and Europe.
This year, SLUSH prepared networking opportunities with investors and buyers who can be helpful when entering the European market through the matchmaking and side events. Through this opportunity, we want to create opportunities for final investments and for Korean startups to grow a lot.
Q. What are some of the achievements you gained from participating in SLUSH?
A. Senior staff Hyo-Jeong Kim : In general it isn’t common for Korean startups to participate in an exhibition in Europe, but there has been consistent demand for support to participate in European exhibitions, and I’ve been receiving a lot of satisfactory and positive responses when I visited the site, so it makes me feel very proud from KISED’s perspective.
We were also able to promote domestic companies by meeting with many investors through the Match Making Tool. Also at the side event, we were able to obtain good results such as opportunities to meet officials from various countries to promote domestic companies.
Q. What are KISED’s future plans?
A. Senior staff Hyo-Jeong Kim : Currently KISED supports participation in overseas exhibitions about three times a year by region, and we’re targeting exhibitions held in Asia, Europe and the United States.
This year we participated in ‘SWITCH 2022’ held in Singapore in October, the SLUSH held in Europe in November, and plans are to support the CES exhibition held in the U.S. in January 2023. Overall, about 70 domestic startups benefit from the KISED’s overseas exhibition support project.
‘SLUSH’ is the main global startup exhibition in Northern Europe held since 2008 where startups from all over the world and influential investors from Europe and Finland meet. The companies participating in ‘SLUSH 2022’ participated in the company promotion operated in the K-STARTUP hall during the exhibition period, their own K-STARTUP Demo Day side event, and professional investor networking using the match making tool.
[Helsinki, Finland=AVING & Lecafedugeek Special Report Team – Joseph Choe, Dongkwan Kim, Mokkyung Lee, Leo Thevenet]
