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University-Based Practical Startup Platform “Busan-U Startup Package” Hosts IR Pitching Competition

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon), together with Busan National University (President Choi Jae-weon), announced that it will hold the Busan-U Startup Package IR Pitching Competition today (December 5) at 14:00 at Park Hyatt Busan.

This event aims to share the achievements of the Busan-U Startup Package and to provide a venue for university startup teams to present their business commercialization ideas.

The event will be attended by university startup teams advancing to the IR presentation stage, ten universities collaborating in nurturing entrepreneurial talent, the Busan Startup Investment Agency, the Southeast Investment Hub of the Korea Angel Investment Association, investment screening officers, and approximately 70 participants in total.

At this competition, ten teams that successfully completed the practical startup program of the Busan-U Startup Package will present their commercialized business ideas, based on which award recipients will be selected. The team receiving the top award will be presented with the Mayor of Busan Metropolitan City Award.

In 2025, fifty university startup teams (174 participants) from sixteen regional universities participated in the Busan-U Startup Package. Among them, ten teams were selected to advance to this competition after completing the stages of hands-on training, business model (BM) advancement, and technology verification. The finalist teams completed their preparations through further refinement of their ideas and consulting.

Award winners will be determined based on presentations of their step-by-step advanced commercialization ideas. Awards include the Mayor of Busan Metropolitan City Award for the grand prize team, the President of Busan National University Award for the first prize team, the Busan Startup Investment Agency Director Award for two excellence award teams, and the Busan National University RISE Project Director Award for the encouragement award team.

In addition, the ten finalist teams will receive benefits such as participation in the Global Startup Camp scheduled to be held in Nagoya, Japan, in January next year, as well as support for next year’s investment linkage programs.

A special lecture will also be offered by the representative of a company that completed the Busan-U Startup Package last year and has since launched an actual business, providing aspiring students with an opportunity to take a step closer to entrepreneurship.

Meanwhile, the Busan-U Startup Package is a program implemented through city–university collaboration to promote technology-based university startups. Following an open regional call in the Busan–Ulsan–Gyeongnam area in June, fifty teams were selected, and the program has since progressed through stage-by-stage practical startup activities—from hands-on training in July to the current competition.

In connection with the launch of the Busan-type RISE initiative this year, the program expanded its scope from 38 teams in the Busan region to 50 teams across the Busan–Ulsan–Gyeongnam region. With a seven-stage advancement system consisting of hands-on training, networking, business model advancement, technology verification, IR pitching competition, global camp, and investment linkage, the program has established a foundation that enables promising technologies to lead to real startup creation.

Through a stage-by-stage evaluation system, twenty outstanding teams among the fifty participating teams advanced to the technology verification stage, and the top ten teams from this group qualified for the current competition.

Lee Jin-su, Finance & Start-up Policy Bureau Director, stated, “I am very pleased to see the Busan-U Startup Package program, which cultivates outstanding university talent into practical entrepreneurs, bearing fruit thanks to the enthusiastic participation of students and partner institutions.” He added, “Busan Metropolitan City will continue to enhance the startup ecosystem of Busan through sustained cooperation with universities to support students’ passion for entrepreneurship.”