Digital PR agency, Bebop Asia, and integrated marketing agency, AKÏN, have been appointed by the Korea IT Cooperation Center Singapore (KICC) to market Korea’s annual K-Startup Grand Challenge (KSGC 2020) in Southeast Asia and organise the online regional auditions.
The pitch started in December 2019 and in April 2020, Bebop Asia and AKÏN’s joint presentation was chosen to carry out public relations/event management and social media duties respectively. The brief was to provide the most effective way to gain significant startup signups in the Southeast Asian region starting 15th May 2020.
“K-Startup Grand Challenge forms part of the centre’s strategy to discover and support the next generation of technology innovations,” says Jun Byong Nam, Regional Director, KICC. “We look forward to another exciting breakthrough year for the tech startups from around the world, and how this will be able to benefit Asia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and overall innovation blueprint.”
To ensure participants’ health and safety, all auditions will be held online. The Top 60 global startup finalists will be tested and quarantined for 14 days upon arrival before commencing the program.
The finalists will live in Korea and grow their startup in a 3 month accelerator program. KSGC 2020 will cover expenses, provide mentorship, and create partnerships with Korean conglomerates (like Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Naver and Lotte). There are also grants for the top 4 finalists of up to US$120,000.
“Korea is showing us the way forward in the midst of a global slowdown. Being a tech-focused agency, we are certain that KSGC will help startups return to growth,” says Peter Justin Yu, Chief Marketeer of Bebop Asia. “We appreciate the trust placed in us by KICC to bring Bebop’s and AKÏN’s combined expertise in delivering a great 2020 season for the competition.”
“Together with Bebop Asia, we are honoured to play a role in supporting talented entrepreneurs and promising businesses as they navigate Korea’s growing startup ecosystem,” says Arvin Tang, Managing Director of AKÏN. “We believe that the KSGC accelerator program is an excellent opportunity for participating startups to increase their presence in Asia.”
K Startup Grand Challenge. Applicants must be a part of a startup (regardless of industry) that is less than 7 years old or a pre-entrepreneur whose representative holds a foreign nationality or is an overseas Korean. Applicants must also be a part of a startup with a clear objective to expand into Asia through Korea. Provided that they meet the criteria, interested startups and entrepreneurs-in-the-mAKÏNg can read through the details of the competition here KSGC 2020 and apply from now until 25 June.
Korea IT Cooperation Center (KICC) in Singapore. Established in July 11, 2014, KICC serves as a National IT Industry Promotion Agency of Korea (NIPA)’s strategic hub for boosting more vigorous business opportunities between Korea and ASEAN countries in the ICT industry. NIPA is a non-profit government agency affiliated to the Ministry of Science and ICT to the Republic of Korea, which is responsible for providing support to IT enterprises and professionals. NIPA leads national economic development and knowledge-based economic society by promoting competitiveness of overall industries through IT usage and advancing IT industries.
