The Korea Startup Forum said on the 10th that it has provided office furniture to five early-stage startups through the "Startup Pay-It-Forward Ecosystem Campaign," carried out together with Bucketplace, the operator of "Ohouse," and the Asan Nanum Foundation.
The support marks the first outcome of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the three organizations in May. Launched at Ohouse's proposal, the campaign was designed to ease the burden of setting up work environments faced by early-stage startups with fewer than 10 employees, helping them focus on product and service development and business growth.
The five companies finally selected are Gosma Bioscience, Meat Freude, Thejaran, Embass, and Metel. These companies received office furniture such as desks and chairs from Ohouse and plan to newly furnish their workspaces within this month.
The project is also the first activity of an annual campaign being pursued to mark the Korea Startup Forum's 10th anniversary. The forum explained that over the 10 years since its launch, companies that were once early-stage founding teams have grown into unicorns and mid-sized enterprises, and a virtuous cycle in which they now give back to the next generation has begun to become visible in the field. It said this is a signal showing that Korea's startup ecosystem has matured to a new level.
Wang Doo-ho, CEO of Thejaran, one of the companies selected for the campaign, said, "Having passed through the days of picking up discarded furniture to use and enduring with only documents piled high on each desk, we will not forget the help we received and will generously share our know-how with junior founding teams challenging themselves in the agri-food sector."
