Won a prize and visa in Korea for an idea to reduce drug waste!

When coming to Korea to work, many foreigners often think about obtaining an E-9 visa. However, rather than working at a Korean factory with an E-9 visa, how about getting a ‘Startup Korea Special Visa’ or a Technology Startup (D-8-4) visa and working in Korea as an entrepreneur, albeit at a small company?

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups held the ‘2024 K-Startup Grand Challenge’ Demo Day at COEX in Seoul on December 11. Demo Day is a competition where people who are challenging startups show their achievements. About 100 people, including 40 foreign startup teams and domestic and foreign venture investors, attended.

The ‘K-Startup Grand Challenge’, which began in 2016, is a program that supports excellent overseas startups to establish domestic corporations and settle in Korea. This year, a total of 1,716 teams from 114 countries around the world applied to participate.

After document screening and presentation evaluation, 40 teams were finally selected, and they entered Korea in September and prepared for this demo day under the care of domestic startup planners for about three and a half months.

On this day, at Demo Day, the top 8 teams, selected through an evaluation of commercialization achievements and a preliminary round by startup planners, presented their startup items and business plans, and the top 5 teams were finally selected to receive a total of $400,000 in prize money.

‘Polymerize’ (India) was selected as the best foreign startup team of the year, receiving a prize of $150,000. ‘Nanodropper’ (USA) took second place, ‘Open Energy’ (Portugal) third place, ‘Gimme Savor’ (Spain) fourth place, and ‘Murple’ (China) fifth place, each receiving a prize of $100,000.

The number one startup is a company that develops cloud-based AI material informatics software. It's not an easy field for most people to challenge.

But the second-place startup is working on a way to reduce drug waste, while the fourth-place startup is making plant-based protein products that can flavor meat, seafood, cheese, and more. The fifth-place startup is working on a document editing platform that will help researchers write papers about five times faster.

How about it? Are you trying to change the world with just your own ideas, without necessarily having to deal with difficult areas?

At the awards ceremony that day, the top 20 teams, including the five teams receiving prize money, were announced, and they will be provided with follow-up support such as three months of commercialization funding and additional childcare to help them settle and grow in Korea.

If you have a challenging and innovative idea, don't give up and challenge yourself, even if you are a foreign resident!

Mary Eve of Papaya Story