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Mayor Park Heong-joon Meets with Startup Genome CEO JF Gauthier… Busan Accelerates Advancement of Its Startup Ecosystem

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that today at 10:00 a.m. it will hold a meeting at City Hall with JF Gauthier, Chief Executive Officer of Startup Genome, a global organization that evaluates startup ecosystems, to begin full-scale efforts to advance Busan’s startup ecosystem and strengthen its leap toward becoming a global startup city.

Startup Genome is a leading global organization that evaluates startup city rankings and publishes the Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) annually. Busan entered the global top 80 emerging startup ecosystems for the first time in 2025.

This visit follows the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) last September between Busan Metropolitan City and Startup Genome to strengthen competitiveness as a global startup hub city. The visit aims to initiate full-scale efforts to advance Busan’s startup ecosystem. Discussions will focus on specific implementation measures, including consulting for advancing the city’s startup ecosystem, strategies to strengthen global startup competitiveness, and support for local startups’ entry into global markets.

Currently, Busan Metropolitan City and Startup Genome are jointly carrying out a three-phase consulting process for advancing Busan’s startup ecosystem—environment assessment, policy design, and policy implementation. Through this process, the city plans to establish a comprehensive roadmap for advancing Busan’s startup ecosystem.

CEO JF Gauthier will stay in Busan from March 9 to March 12. During this period, he will conduct on-site interviews with startup support organizations, venture capital firms (VCs), accelerators (ACs), and technology startups, and will inspect startup infrastructure to further refine policy advancement measures.

Meanwhile, Busan Metropolitan City and Startup Genome are also jointly operating the “Hypergrowth” program, which supports local startups in entering the U.S. market.

This program is a global scale-up initiative designed for promising growth-stage startups. It provides comprehensive support including the development of U.S. market entry strategies, networking with local investors and industry experts, strengthening global investment attraction capabilities, and consulting on business model localization.

In particular, the program goes beyond simple training or mentoring. Industry executives and investment experts based in the United States directly participate to refine product and investment strategies and explore opportunities for actual investment connections, making the program highly practical.

Currently, two promising scale-up stage startups from the region have been selected. They will participate in an on-site program in Silicon Valley in the United States from March 17 to March 20, where they will conduct meetings with global investors, visit local companies, and participate in networking events.

Mayor Park Heong-joon stated, “If Busan’s startup infrastructure is combined with Startup Genome’s global standard analytical framework, Busan will be able to take another leap forward as a city attracting the attention of global investors and entrepreneurs.” He added, “Through this visit, we will ensure that Busan’s strengths are more accurately evaluated on the global stage and will actively support tangible outcomes for local startups expanding into global markets.”