The Seoul Center for Creative Economy and Innovation (CEO Lee Young-geun, hereafter referred to as Seoul Center) announced that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the 24th with the International Management Institute of the Korea Economic Association (formerly the Federation of Korean Industries, Director Kim Chang-beom, hereafter referred to as the International Management Institute) to foster startups and activate open innovation based on investment.

This agreement was planned and promoted under the leadership of the Seoul Center's Investment Operations Office and is significant in that it establishes a public-private cooperation model that simultaneously supports the growth and investment linkage of startup companies by collaborating with private corporate education institutions and public startup support organizations.

Through this agreement, the Seoul Center plans to strengthen its full-cycle support system by combining private corporate networks and startup support infrastructure to support everything from discovering prospective and early-stage startups to growth-stage development, investment, and open innovation linkage.

In particular, based on the accumulated experience in startup incubating, investment linkage, and private cooperation program operations, it intends to organically connect with the network of the International Management Institute to gradually promote practical and sustainable joint projects.

The International Management Institute possesses extensive experience in operating CEO education programs and a broad corporate network, and through this agreement, it will expand its cooperation areas into startup fostering and the industrial open innovation sector.

Based on this agreement, the two organizations plan to gradually promote various cooperative projects, including ▲ reverse pitching and follow-up support linkage for companies participating in government startup support projects ▲ joint program operations with university startup support divisions and other startup support organizations ▲ discovery and support of prospective and early-stage startups and startup spaces ▲ joint forums and networking projects to activate the startup investment ecosystem.

Ji Jung-woo, Head of the Seoul Center, stated, “By combining the rich SI network of the Korea Economic Association and the startup selection capabilities of the Seoul Center, we will present a new model for M&A investment in the contracted venture market and early secondary brokerage.”

Lee Young-geun, CEO of the Seoul Center, said, “This agreement is a public-private cooperation open innovation model that combines the startup support and investment linkage capabilities of the Seoul Center with the corporate education infrastructure of the International Management Institute,” adding, “We will continue to strengthen the virtuous cycle structure of startup growth through practical investment-centered cooperative projects.”

Meanwhile, as the first joint project of this agreement, the two organizations plan to hold the '2025 Open Innovation Forum' on November 17 at the FKI Tower in Yeouido, Seoul. This forum will present cooperation models between large and mid-sized companies and early-stage startups, with participation from over 20 major university startup support centers nationwide to share innovation cases.

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