The Busan Center for Creative Economy and Innovation (CEO Kim Yong-woo, hereinafter referred to as Busan CCEI) is recruiting companies to participate in the 5th batch of the ‘B.Startup PIE’ program, which supports the growth of promising startups through direct investment and investment firm connections.
The recruitment period is from May 15 to June 16, and applications can be submitted through the Busan CCEI website.
Since its launch in 2021, ‘B.Startup PIE’ has discovered 32 startups up to last year. Just last year alone, it achieved over 180 billion won in investment connections through 123 one-on-one meetings between investors and startups.
Selected companies receive support in areas such as △enterprise diagnosis mentoring △meet-ups with investors △review of investments from Busan CCEI fund △linkage with collaborative investment firms △demonstration days.
ATAD (Atad), one of the selected companies from the 4th batch, operates a blockchain-based Web 3.0 big data trading platform and entered the Pre-A investment round.
Softsquared (Gritge) was selected as a baby unicorn company based on its IT education and outsourcing development services and secured an investment of 2 billion won.
Marine Drone Technology operates a tuna fish detection and drone shipping service using marine drones, securing 5.1 billion won in investment after being selected for the project.
Busan CCEI is currently managing a total investment fund of 10 billion won, including the newly formed ‘Busan Regional Innovation Fly High Investment Partnership.’ It is working with over 30 new collaborative partners to discover startups.
CEO Kim Yong-woo stated, “The quickest way to activate regional businesses is financial liquidity,” adding, “We will actively invest in companies with high growth potential.”
