The Invention Lab, an early-stage investment organization and a specialized venture studio, said on the 28th that it secured a total of 1,200 ideas in the results of the “Everyone’s Startup Project,” a large-scale startup support program hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and operated by the Startup Promotion Agency, for the Seoul-area pool of would-be entrepreneurs, and has moved into the top four operating companies in the Seoul Capital Area.
The government’s newly launched “Everyone’s Startup Project” is a nationwide startup support program designed so that anyone—such as teenagers, college students, and aspiring entrepreneurs—can take on the challenge with nothing more than an idea. For selected participants, step-by-step growth programs are provided across the board, including startup activity grants as well as mentoring, prototype production, expert consulting, and an IR and investment linkage.
In this call for proposals, The Invention Lab significantly lowered the support barriers by providing all participants with “IDEAGACHA”, its in-house AI-based idea generation solution, free of charge. The solution has received positive evaluations for creating an opportunity to spread a culture in which anyone can take on entrepreneurship by intuitively helping aspiring entrepreneurs with the process of concretizing ideas and writing support applications—the most difficult parts in the early stage.
The 1,200 submitted ideas were found to be evenly distributed across future growth industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), next-generation deep tech with a wide technological gap, robotics, bio and healthcare, beauty and content, and food tech. The Invention Lab said it plans to closely evaluate the submitted ideas through a responsibility-mentor team made up of top-tier experts in the industry and to activate a systematic support framework so that the ultimately selected ideas can successfully carry through into real commercialization in the future.
Kim Jin-young, CEO of The Invention Lab, assessed that this performance reflects capabilities and an entrepreneurship support infrastructure built up over a long time that were confirmed on the ground. He also said it will strongly support the entire cycle—starting with company building, then investment attraction, and linkage to TIPS—to help people who are trying entrepreneurship for the first time overcome the uncertainty they face and to carry them from the idea stage all the way to executing an actual startup.
Meanwhile, beyond initial investment through open innovation operations and affiliated funds, The Invention Lab has also been continuously expanding its growth support system for promising startups by establishing a Busan branch recently and accelerating end-to-end investment and nurturing for deep tech startups based in the southeastern region.
