The Rise Of Seoul’s Startup Ecosystem
Introduction
Even though South Korea’s capital city is acknowledged as the home for various corporate giants, Seoul has been striving to add potency to its economy by fostering a vigorous, local startup ecosystem. Seoul is working with several Korean entrepreneurs and their companies to generate one of the world’s most promising startup ecosystem in line with the growth of the nation as a global economic centre.
What is Seoul’s Startup Ecosystem Offering?
With a profoundly educated population of approximately 10 million, Seoul ranks third in the world for knowledge and offers startups with an abundance of expertise to choose from. In addition to this, government bodies and local investors are presenting potential founders with unique opportunities to acquire the funding needed to advance their companies. Startups across Seoul are securing government investment and services to make notable advances in industries engaged in the numerous critical challenges of our time, particularly finance, biomedical, social enterprise and manufacturing.
To encourage innovation in the financial services sector, Seoul Fintech Lab offers educational programs, mentorship and investments to fintech startups as they intend to enhance the driving force to improve the fundamentals of the current financial industry. They strive to ultimately serve as an edge for international competition. Moreover, this ecosystem has a thriving group of organizations that provide startups with office space, as well as common areas to network and hold meetings to promote the sharing of ideas and gain support. The Seoul Startup Hub is the city’s biggest business incubator nurturing startup talent.
Along with modernizing key industries such as finance, Seoul startups are also working on today’s several prominent health predicaments. Located at a nexus of ten universities and 6 hospitals in the north of the city, Seoul BioHub provides a space for startups to operate in an ecosystem while seeking to deliver health services surpassing South Korea.
Seoul’s startup ecosystem already has a value of $39 billion, according to the Startup Genome’s Global Startup Ecosystem report. Driving that success has been the emergence of 13 Korean Unicorns, which are privately held companies valued at $1 Billion or more. The imminent future promises more game-changing advancements by an assortment of new Korean companies.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Seoul’s Startup Ecosystem
In comparison to the top 30 startup ecosystems and the Asian-Pacific startup ecosystems, South Korea’s capital city has shown its strength in the following categories: knowledge and market reach. According to Startup Genome, the market reach sector is comprised of three factors: leading Global companies, Local scope, and IP commercialization. The Startup Genome Report 2020 explicitly stated that South Korea’s capital city scored 9/10 in leading Global companies, 3/10 in Local range, and 3/10 in IP commercialization. Due to its global brands, such as Samsung, Seoul was given a high score in leading Global companies. However, the other two factors, IP commercialization and local range need some improvement.
Furthermore, the Knowledge category has exhibited two factors: Research and Patent. Seoul scored 10/10 in Research and 2/10 in Patent, according to the Startup Genome report. The Patent was measured from the complexity, volume, and potential of patents in Life Sciences created in the ecosystem. Except for Tokyo, most of the Asian-Pacific cities were below 5/10.
In contrast to the advantage of Market reach and Knowledge, this capital city is known for displaying weakness in Funding and Connectedness. In the Connectedness category, Seoul scored 1/10 in Local connectedness. Startup Genome explains in the report that a function of the number of tech meetups in the ecosystem. Areas such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Tokyo all scored 1/10 or 2/10 in this case.
In regards to funding, this category is composed of two factors: Access and Quality and Activities. The first factor, Access, deals with the function of early-stage funding volume and funding growth. In this section, Seoul only scored 3/10. The score of Access was quite strange from the point of view that Seoul has shown more early-stage funding compared to the global average. The second factor, Quality and Activity is comprised of a combination of the number of local investors, their experiences, and their activity. Seoul scored 5/10 in this division.
Conclusion
It is clear that Seoul has seen a quick rise of its startup ecosystem from a model player to a top global performer, and has shown great resilience in the face of a global pandemic, as they strive to refurbish key industries, such as finance. This capital city is providing entrepreneurs with the resources, such as common areas to network and office space, and the mentorship needed to become successful in their desired field. Seoul should serve as an exemplar to other cities looking to grow their ecosystems with a robust, ambitious program of government and local investment and support for startups.
