Start-ups scrambling as Samsung’s deadline approaches

With only a week left to apply for financial aid from the nation’s biggest tech company, Samsung Electronics, the competition is heating up with more than 2,100 start-up ideas submitted as of Monday.

Samsung has been accepting applications since Nov. 10 and the deadline for submissions is Monday.

Samsung said the largest number of applications - 24 percent - involve software development.

Submissions related to the Internet of Things came in second at 13 percent and wearable technology businesses were third at 10 percent.

The company said there has been a substantial number of ideas that have not advanced beyond concepts and are still in their early stages. That can be attributed to the fact that the competition is open to everyone, not just tech specialists.

However, the company noted that various experts will evaluate whether the proposals are practical and have potential when it holds presentations on the business ideas in mid-December.

The first cut will be made Dec. 5 and the second cut will be announced 10 days later. Finalists will be announced Dec. 19.

The number of companies that will receive financial aid has not been decided yet.

Start-up proposals that win the competition will receive a maximum of 500 million won ($450,000), including 20 million won as an initial investment. They also will be allowed to set up shop at C-Lab in Samsung Electronics’ creative economic innovation center in Daegu.

Samsung said its support is not only limited to providing work spaces and handing seed money for starting a business. It will help start-ups from the beginning until they set off on their own through the C-Lab program, which the company has been running since 2011.

C-Lab is a program whose goal is to help Samsung’s employees develop their innovative ideas.

Additionally, the start-ups will receive full partnership support from Samsung, which will also use its vast global network via its Open Innovation Centers (OIC) operating in the United States. OICs are a part of Samsung Electronics offices based in Silicon Valley in California and New York City.

Their goals are to manage venture capital, M&As and incubators.

Samsung said its support will help keep companies from falling into entrepreneurial purgatory, where a start-up that has grown some and generates revenue has trouble finding additional financing.

By LEE HO-JEONG [ojlee82@joongang.co.kr]