Taxes and Incentives

• Foreign startup support: the government offers grants through programs like the K-Startup Grand Challenge, which includes provisions of visas for founders.

• Visas: The government announced in January 2022 that a special startup visa category is in the pipeline.

• Tax breaks for angel investors and VCs : Tax deduction will be up to 50% for investments of up to 50 million won. Tax breaks that were earlier available to only high-risk ventures were expanded to include startups that are less than three years old.

• Future plans: In July 2021, the South Korean government announced Korean New Deal 2.0 which envisages an increased fiscal investment planned to be made by 2025 of 220 trillion won. Digital New Deal is part of this and the government plans increased investment in the digital economy, metaverse, cloud computing, blockchain and convergence.

Investor Landscape

• In 2021, the value of new venture capital investments in South Korea amounted to about 9.2 trillion won ($7.7 billion), up from about 6.9 trillion won in 2020

• Newly launched venture funds in South Korea in the January-September period of 2021 rose to 268, topping a total of 206 for the entire 2020.

• South Korea had 357 unicorns-to-be with corporate values between 100 billion won($83.5B) and 1 trillion won($834.8B) as of the end of August 2021.

• Korea Venture Investment Corp. is a government-backed fund of funds management institution in Korea.

• South Korea has a sovereign fund- Korea Investment Fund that boosts the startup ecosystem.

• Some prominent accelerators and incubators include: N15, TIPS, K-Startup Grand Challenge an the Seoul Global Startup Center.

Notable events and communities

• Startup Seoul- English speaking community for startups in Seoul which organizes networking and mentorship events.

• COMEUP- One of South Korea’s biggest startup and tech conferences organized by the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups and government body KISED (Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development).

• Startup Alliance - Helps Korean startups grow and expand overseas. Startup Alliance organizes regular networking events.

• Pangyo Techno Valley - is a global convergence R&D hub and an innovation cluster, with a startup campus offering affordable office spaces.