[For more diverse corporate information on startups mentioned in this article, please visit the Unicorn Factory big data platform 'Data Lab.]
The Lotte Scholarship Foundation announced on the 3rd that it is recruiting participants for the '3rd Shin Kyung-ho Lotte Young Entrepreneur Award' (Shin Kyung-ho Startup Competition), which aims to discover young entrepreneurs who will lead the future of Korea's economy, with applications accepted until the 30th.
The Shin Kyung-ho Startup Competition is a startup contest named after the late Shin Gyeok-ho (Chairman), founder of Lotte Group. Launched in 2024, it aims to discover and support 'Little Shin Kyung-hos' who will inherit his spirit of challenge and entrepreneurship, thereby leading and revitalizing The Korea Economic Daily.
Shin Gyeok-ho (Chairman), who founded a business after moving to Japan in the 1940s, is recognized as one of South Korea's pioneering entrepreneurs who built Lotte Group into a global enterprise based on corporate patriotism () and a spirit of challenge after returning home in the 1960s, laying the foundation for The Korea Economic Daily.
This competition is hosted by the Lotte Scholarship Foundation and the Research & Development Special Zone Promotion Foundation, and organized by the Korean Entrepreneurship Foundation and AC Pathfinder. Any young entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur nationwide with innovative technology or business models across all industrial sectors may participate.
The competition will be conducted in two tracks for participants (university/graduate students and general public) and divided into two industry-specific categories. Category 1 includes young entrepreneurs from the food, distribution, chemical, construction, culture, tourism, service, finance, social venture, and other industrial sectors. Category 2 targets young entrepreneurs in deep tech and national strategic technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence), semiconductors, bio-health, and science and technology-based industries.
The teams advancing to the finals will be announced on October 6. After completing the first round of online mentoring, the selected finalists will undergo a second round of online mentoring and determine whether they are worthy successors to Choi Jong (수상) through final judging held at Lotte Retail Academy on November 26.
Awards ceremonies will also be conducted separately for the two tracks and two categories. The total prize pool is 104 million won. Each grand prize-winning team receives 104 million won. Choi U (수상) each receive 9 million won, excellence awards each receive 6 million won, and encouragement awards each receive 3 million won. Additionally, the Research & Development Special Zone Promotion Foundation and the Korean Entrepreneurship Foundation will each select one team per category to award 0.1 billion won.
All teams that win awards in the competition will be given the opportunity to present their business models to institutional investors. The Research & Development Special Zone Promotion Foundation plans to provide follow-up programs at each stage, including item enhancement and startup support through the 'Inno-Polis Campus Support Project' for all award-winning teams.
Meanwhile, the 2nd Shin Kyung-ho Lotte Young Entrepreneur Award held last year saw participation from 380 startups, recording a high competition ratio. Winning teams from the 1st and 2nd competitions have continued to achieve results through investment acquisition and follow-up IR even after the contests. Even considering only publicly disclosed cases, their subsequent investment amounts exceed 23 billion won.
Business growth has also been remarkable. Some companies saw sales increase by 20 times after winning awards, and there were cases where corporate valuations rose by more than fourfold. Additionally, achievements have been reported in areas such as employment expansion, signing of large-scale sales contracts, overseas expansion, and strengthening domestic and international partnerships.
[MoneyToday startup media platform Unicorn Factory]
in FUTURE
