Minister of SMEs and Startups Lee So-young pledged full government support to develop Daejeon into a model startup city representing South Korea.
Speaking at a roundtable on the Startup City Project held on the 15th at the National Nanofab Center at KAIST in Daejeon, Lee said startup activity would pick up only if designated startup cities functioned properly as regional hubs. "We need a virtuous cycle in which more startups succeed, regions become more vibrant and young people are given new opportunities," she said.
The Startup City Project goes beyond simply increasing the number of startups. It links regional startup resources — talent, funding, investment and infrastructure — so that companies can launch, grow and stay in their home regions. The project currently centers on four cities: Daejeon, Daegu, Gwangju and Ulsan. The ministry plans to issue a notice this month to select six additional startup cities, gradually expanding the network of startup hubs built around each region's strengths and specialized industries.
The roundtable was arranged to review progress on the Daejeon startup city initiative and discuss how to carry out the project successfully. Attendees included Daejeon Mayor Hur Tae-jung, KAIST Institute for Startup Director Bae Hyeon-min, Daejeon Center for Creative Economy & Innovation CEO Park Dae-hee and founders of deep-tech companies.
Daejeon ranks 296th in global startup ecosystem rankings, the highest among South Korean cities outside the greater Seoul area. With KAIST, Chungnam National University, the Daedeok Innopolis research cluster and government-funded research institutes concentrated in the city, Daejeon is seen as holding strong growth potential for deep-tech startups, backed by its research workforce and technology infrastructure. The ministry designated Daejeon as a startup city in April this year to turn those strengths into actual company formation and growth.
Participants said the city needs to strengthen its local investment base and produce successful startup cases while making use of its talent and technological capabilities.
Bae of KAIST said talent is Daejeon's greatest asset. "Replicating a startup city like Silicon Valley would be difficult, but the realistic direction is to maximize our strength in talent and build a city that seeds startups," he said.
Local startups pointed to better conditions for attracting investment as a key task. Jeong Cheol-min, CEO of Maedowang, said local investors often tell him that investment is difficult because there are no funds available to invest from. "Additional incentives are needed so that money flows smoothly into funds raised in the regions," he said, adding that investment must come first for startups to multiply and for their hiring and growth to follow.
Kim Seung-hoon, CEO of LK Robotics, stressed the importance of producing successful startups. "For Daejeon's startup city project to succeed, we need success stories from companies that were founded here and grew here," he said. "Once those cases accumulate, the perception will spread that starting a business in Daejeon can lead to success, and more founders will gather here."
Lee gave high marks to Daejeon's capabilities as a startup city and promised active support to turn it into a success story. "Daejeon has a solid foundation for startups, with strong science and technology, a research workforce and research institutions," she said. "When those strengths are organically connected around entrepreneurship, Daejeon can build a startup ecosystem with its own competitive edge." She added: "Daejeon has ample resources to produce more results and more success stories as a startup city. The central government will also actively support Daejeon's growth into a leading startup city."