Gwangju Metropolitan City is accelerating efforts to build an innovative startup ecosystem by combining the region's rich resources — including universities, research institutes, and public data — with government research and development (R&D) and investment, building on its recent designation as a "Tech Startup City."
According to Gwangju Metropolitan City on Tuesday, the city, which was selected as one of the "Four Tech Startup Cities" alongside Daejeon, Daegu, and Ulsan, is aiming to join the "World's Top 100 Startup Cities" by 2030 based on this designation.
The city plans to build a "talent-centric ecosystem" in which individuals with world-class research capabilities from institutions such as the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) and the Korea Institute of Energy Technology (KENTECH) settle in the region, launch startups, and see their achievements translate back into regional growth.
To this end, the city will discover and nurture 500 early-stage deep tech startups with distinctive technological capabilities by 2030 and transform the entire Gwangju area into a testbed for deep tech R&D and commercialization verification.
The city will also work to remove regulations that hinder startup activities by top talent. By 2027, GIST will be designated as a "Deep Tech Startup-Centered University," and a "Startup Center" will be established. Regulatory easing, including extensions of leave and dual-employment periods for entrepreneurship, will also be pursued to help researchers and faculty challenge themselves in startups without the burden of failure.
Funding for startup investment will also be expanded. The city will boost investment by utilizing the "Jeonnam-Gwangju Scale-up Venture Fund," which will be established in the second half of this year, and will build a rapid investment support system through the expansion of the Angel Investment Hub and Korea Venture Investment Corp.'s regional offices.
In particular, Gwangju will form a "Startup City Promotion Task Force" involving all local research institutes, universities, and related agencies to ensure the project's successful execution. It will serve as a public-private cooperation system that organically supports the entire startup process, from idea discovery and R&D to verification and investment attraction.
"We will make sure to realize an opportunity city where startups founded in Gwangju, rather than the Seoul metropolitan area, can grow into unicorn companies," said Oh Young-gul, director general of Gwangju's Economy and Startup Bureau.
