Original Article by Korean Newspaper ‘Newsis’, 30th Oct. 2022 https://newsis.com/view/?id=NISX20221028_0002065729&cID=13001&pID=13000

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The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) has selected an additional 41 companies as part of its "Baby Unicorn 200" program to support promising startups in becoming unicorn companies with a corporate value of over KRW 100 billion.

According to the MSS on the 30th, the Baby Unicorn 200 program supports companies with competitive products or services that are expected to experience explosive growth in the future, and have completed research and development.

The selection process for support recipients involved a panel of experts and a national review panel selected through 5:1 competition.

The 100 companies that were selected for support until last year (40 in 2020 and 60 in the first half of last year) saw an average employment growth of about 2 times (91.4%) and a revenue growth of 2.5 times (149.6%) since their selection. 60 of the 100 companies also attracted a total of KRW 676.7 billion (KRW 11.3 billion per company) in investment.

The 41 newly selected companies have an average of 4 years and 2 months of experience and a revenue of KRW 3.03 billion. They are composed of 18 ICT-based platform companies and 15 bio-health companies, among others.

All of the selected companies received a technology business assessment of Grade A or higher from the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, and 11 of them received the highest rating of AAA.

For major companies, RCE is an online platform operator that directly connects heavy equipment buyers and suppliers. Pion Corporation sells software that enables marketing video production if materials such as photos, videos, and company URLs (internet addresses) of the advertised product are provided.

Curaum was founded by a doctor in the medical industry as a manufacturer of medical devices for sleep apnea syndrome. Poen is a company that started as a Hyundai Motor internal venture and produces recycled electric vehicle batteries. They perform activities such as recycling, reuse, and residual value evaluation of batteries after electric vehicle use.