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From Campus to Real-World Startup Stage: “2025 Busan U-Startup Package Networking (OT)” Held

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) and Pusan National University (President Choi Jae-weon) announced that they will hold the “2025 Busan U-Startup Package (hereinafter ‘U-Package’) Networking (OT)” event today (July 2) at 2:00 PM at the Busan Workation Hub Center.

○ Approximately 100 university student entrepreneurs selected for the U-Package program will attend the event, which includes an orientation and networking session.
○ The event is co-hosted with Google for Startups, featuring a keynote lecture and open talk by Shin Jung-kyu, CEO of AI startup RablUp and mentor specializing in machine learning at Google for Startups, to share technological insights and engage with participants.

《 Overview of the Busan U-Startup Package Networking (OT) 》

• ●Date & Time: Wednesday, July 2, 2025, 14:00–17:00

• ●Venue: Busan Workation Hub Center (24F, Asti Hotel)

• ●Participants: 50 university startup teams selected for the 2025 program (approx. 100 individuals)

• ●Program: Business orientation (OT), keynote lecture, and networking

The U-Package program is a phased, real-world startup initiative aimed at activating university-based technology startups. Last month, 50 university startup teams from the Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam (BU-Gyeong) region were selected through the first public recruitment.
○ After announcing the project in May, 50 university startup teams—comprising a total of 174 individuals—were selected through an external document evaluation process.

○ Notably, starting this year, the selection process was changed to open recruitment, allowing teams to form freely across universities based on ideas. As a result, 11 teams (22%) were formed as inter-university collaborations.
○ In addition, 7 of the 50 teams consist of students from universities in Ulsan and Gyeongnam, including UNIST and Changwon National University.

This year’s U-Package project is also aligned with the “Busan-style RISE” initiative, expanding the support target and scale, and enhancing the implementation framework through collaboration with five public-private support institutions.
○ The support scale was expanded from 38 university teams in Busan to 50 university teams across the BU-Gyeong region. A step-by-step collaboration system was established with institutions such as the Busan Startup Investment Agency, Korea Angel Investment Association Southeast Angel Investment Hub, Google for Startups, V-SPACE (a professional lab), and Korea Startup Forum.
○ The program offers a seven-stage customized startup support process: ▲practical training ▲networking ▲business model enhancement ▲technology validation ▲investment pitching (IR) competition ▲global camp ▲next-year investment linkage, thus building a foundation for promising technologies to transition into actual startups.

Starting with this networking event, the following are scheduled: ▲startup simulation training and hands-on training in partnership with V-SPACE this July ▲one-on-one business model enhancement consulting with Busan Startup Investment Agency in August.

○ Subsequently, 20 top teams will be selected to participate in a technology validation program (e.g., design review and MVP development) from September to November. Of these, 10 outstanding teams will advance to the November IR competition (in collaboration with the Southeast Angel Investment Hub of the Korea Angel Investment Association), and then to a global startup camp in December.

Nam Dong-woo, Director of Financial Startup Policy at Busan Metropolitan City, stated, “We are delighted to kick off the 2025 Busan U-Startup Package with enthusiastic participation from students,” and added, “University-based startups are the foundation of our city’s tech startup ecosystem, and we will actively support students so their innovative ideas can become real businesses.”