Applications open for this year's startup competition

The 200 teams that advanced to last year's Challenge! K-Startup 2023 competition pose for a photo at Front1, a startup hub in Mapo District, western Seoul, on Tuesday. [MINISTRY OF SMES AND STARTUPS]

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced Tuesday that it is taking applications for its startup competition titled the Challenge! K-Startup 2024.

Challenge! K-Startup is an annual startup competition hosted by the government since 2016.

The application for a preliminary round hosted by the Startup Ministry started Monday and will run through the month until April 29.

The competition is hosted by 10 ministries including the Startup Ministry, the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Environment. The winner will be granted a maximum of 30 million won ($22,170) as prize money.

Each ministry runs its preliminary process differently to handpick startups with the best pitch in each organization’s respective fields. The Startup Ministry in particular holds two different preliminary rounds: one open to anyone with business ideas, including those already running a startup for less than three years, and another open specifically to university clubs.

This month's round is open to a wider public and is one of the 11 preliminary rounds.

This is also the only round applicable to people already operating startups. For rounds hosted by other ministries, only those preparing to start a startup can apply.

A spokesperson from the Creative Economy Innovation Center, an agency under the Startup Ministry in charge of this month's preliminary round, said that applicants to this round can be of any nationality.

For international students, there is a separate application track hosted by the Ministry of Education. That round is dubbed the 2024 Promising Student Start-up Team 300+ (International Students). A non-Korean student has to be the head of the team, and
Korean members can participate in it as well. Applications start on April 15 and are due April 30.

Applicants cannot apply to multiple preliminary rounds with a same pitch.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]