South Korea’s biggest global startup festival COMEUP 2021, is looking for 72 startups to receive benefits of international funding, business meetings, corporate funding, and more. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and COMEUP Organizing Committee is looking for innovative global startups from July 6th to August 5th. The COMEUP Stars are divided into two leagues – Rocket & Rookie, and for the Rookie league, the COMEUP organizing committee is actively looking for startups outside of Korea. 

COMEUP is one of the most extensive and renowned global startup festivals for innovative startups. This year’s event will take place at DDP(Dongdaemun Design Plaza), Seoul, from November 17th to 19th. Despite the unprecedented global pandemic, COMEUP has successfully offered a new global standard in online hosting. This year, COMEUP is making its third comeback with a new hybrid model of on-and-offline hosting. 

COMEUP Stars program 

Through the ‘COMEUP Stars’ program, groundbreaking startups will be nominated to receive a benefits package including pitch video production, mentoring, business meeting, feedback camp, closed-door pitching sessions, and more. Thirty-six startups in prospective industries will be nominated as Rookie and Rocket League, respectively. The 72 finalists will be announced in September after the stages of a thorough screening process. 

Thirty-six companies with their expertise and potential as the next unicorn will be recommended by Korea Venture Investment Corporation as Rocket League nominees. Out of companies with less than $500,000 of accumulated funding, only 36 startups with technological prowess and growth potential will be selected as Rookie League nominees.

Examiners and assessors for the first and second screening will be organized before September. The head of the organizing committee, Sung-woo Ahn, will be joining the examiners throughout the process as head of evaluation committee. 

During COMEUP 2021(Nov 17 – 19), the finalists of ‘COMEUP Stars’ will receive bespoke benefits from 36 expert venture capitalists in 12 different subcommittees/teams including ‘COMEUP Stars Feedback Camp’ featuring pitching and QnA session. Junghoon Cha, Deputy Minister for Office of Startup and Venture Innovation from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, described COMEUP as ‘the best opportunity to promote the company and their business model to the world’ and that ‘the finalist startups are the representatives of COMEUP itself.’ 

Application for ‘COMEUP Stars’ Rookie League is open from July 6th to August 5th on COMEUP website(www.kcomeup.com). COMEUP is actively looking for up-and-coming startups outside of Korea as well for the Rookie League contest.

Also Read, 

• COMEUP 2021: “Meet the Future – Transformation” rolls out the 2021 Organizing Committee
• COMEUP 2020 DAY 1: COMEUP STARS pitches & K-Startup Grand Challenge Awards, Special sessions & side events
• COMEUP 2020 team announces final ‘COMEUP STARS’ list of 120 global startups
• South Korea to organize ComeUp 2020 in November; encourages startups to develop post-Covid-19 contactless services