- Seven high-growth startups selected to receive customized support packages, ranging from commercialization funding to global marketing assistance -
Incheon Metropolitan City announced that it has selected participants for the “I-Startup Unicorn Dream Program,” a flagship initiative under the city’s Global Startup City Vision, announced last year, and will begin full-scale support to nurture globally competitive unicorn companies.
The program serves as a key implementation project of the Global Startup City Vision and was designed to help promising startups scale up and expand into overseas markets through collaboration with major global corporations. With a goal of creating at least two unicorn companies by 2029, Incheon is building an entrepreneurial ecosystem that organically links investment, technology demonstration, and global market expansion. The new program serves as a foundational growth-support platform toward achieving that objective.
Under the I-Startup Unicorn Dream Program, high-potential startups based in Incheon are selected to receive support for scaling up and global expansion through open innovation partnerships with global companies. Incheon Technopark serves as the implementing organization, overseeing the selection of participating companies and startup accelerators as well as overall program operations.
The seven selected companies will receive a total of KRW 400 million in commercialization funding, distributed based on performance evaluations. Furthermore, through partnerships with global technology giants—including Microsoft, AWS, IBM, Siemens, and Ansys—participating firms will gain access to customized growth programs, proof-of-concept (PoC) projects, expert mentoring, investment attraction support, overseas expansion consulting, and joint marketing initiatives.
Through this program, Incheon aims to establish a collaborative ecosystem connecting global corporations with local startups, while providing a growth pathway spanning technology validation, investment, and overseas market entry. The city believes that these efforts will further strengthen the competitiveness of the regional startup ecosystem.
Notably, Incheon currently has no unicorn companies valued at more than KRW 1 trillion. Through this initiative, the city plans to intensively cultivate globally competitive startups and lay the foundation for producing future unicorns.
