Local government of Sejong has established the Sejong Centre for Creative Economy and Innovation. The goal is to provide entrepreneurial support services as a regional innovation and startup-focused institution. This includes managing infrastructure to enhance the startup ecosystem’s competitiveness in Sejong City, running tailored support programmes at different growth stages, fostering cooperation between large and medium-sized enterprises and startups, supporting startup investments and global expansion, and nurturing entrepreneurial small business owners.
The Centre consists of the Sejong SB Plaza (its main facility) as well as other incubation facilities, including the Sejong Startup Centre, Sejong Startup Building, Sejong Licon Town, and the Administrative Complex Space. The main facility focuses on technology and venture startups, the Sejong Startup Centre serves as a platform for early-stage and young entrepreneurs, the Sejong Startup Building is an incubation platform for idea-based startups, and Sejong Licon Town and the Administrative Complex Space are designed to support small entrepreneurial businesses and local startups.
Startup Growth Support ‘StartOn’
The Centre also runs a startup nurturing programme called ‘StartOn’ to lead regional entrepreneurship and establishes a sustainable innovation startup ecosystem. The ‘StartOn’ programme is structured to provide core support services from the preliminary startup phase to investment attraction, with stages including: fostering prospective entrepreneurs (Union) → incubating startup businesses (ChallengeOn) → advancing technology and validating the market (InsightOn) → facilitating open innovation with large and medium-sized enterprises (BridgeOn) → enhancing investment capabilities and providing direct investment (InvestOn) → and networking for Sejong City entrepreneurs (SynergyOn).
Representative Nurturing Services
The Centre operates an open innovation support programme where startup companies collaborate with large and medium-sized enterprises, private investors, and universities. It provides problem-solving-based technology verification support tailored to the needs of large and medium-sized enterprises, as well as proposal-based technology verification support for startups’ innovative technologies. This offers high-growth opportunities such as securing technology, global expansion, and attracting investment.
The Centre will continue working towards building a sustainable innovation startup ecosystem in the region and discovering and nurturing leading startups in Sejong City.
