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Scene from the ‘Entrepreneurship World Cup 2024 (EWC 2024)’ national team selection ‘EWC Korea’ held at the Startup Branch in COEX, Samseong-dong, Seoul, last Wednesday. | Photo by AVING News
The Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED) successfully hosted the national team selection event ‘EWC Korea’ for the international startup competition ‘Entrepreneurship World Cup 2024 (EWC 2024)’ at the Startup Branch in COEX, Samseong-dong, Seoul, last Wednesday.

EWC 2024 is the largest startup event in the Middle East region. It has been held annually in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, since 2017 and is run concurrently with BIBAN 2024, a global startup competition. The event is co-hosted by Saudi Arabia’s Small and Medium Enterprises Authority (Monsha’at) and the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN).

The competition involves preliminary rounds in each country to select the top 100 companies, leading to the global finals, EWC 2024 Global, held at BIBAN 2024 this November. The winning startups in the finals will receive a total prize of one million dollars (cumulative for different stages and fields) and opportunities for investment and support to enter the Saudi Arabian market.

Notably, this year, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and KISED signed a business agreement with the Global Entrepreneurship Network, gaining official operational status to host the national preliminary competition, EWC Korea, on the afternoon of the 7th.

 

Thirteen Korean startups participated in the preliminary round, including VS PharmTech, Medipixel, SPACEMAP, LuxPM, Asleep, Energy X, Marine Innovation, DeepScent, Tesser, Mapsea, Morphing I, MO Sports, and HME Square. Each company’s representative and staff gave presentations (7 minutes) and questions from the judges (5 minutes).

The panel of judges was composed of five leaders from venture capital (VC) and accelerator (AC) firms with expertise and experience in global markets and investment sectors, including CEO Tae-hoon Ku of Bigbang Ventures, CEO Hyun-woong Ku of Next Wave Venture Partners, CEO Ji-eun Moon of Star Ventures, CEO Sang-yong Han of On&Up Partners, and CEO Yu-jin Kim of SparkLabs.

The four companies selected to represent Korea at EWC Korea will directly qualify for EWC 2024 Global, held with BIBAN 2024 this November. The remaining nine companies will participate in the global preliminaries, EWC 250, and undergo further evaluations at a boot camp operated by the hosts to determine if they advance to the finals.

Meanwhile, BIBAN 2024 will consist of a startup exhibition and forums on nine themes, including ‘Market’ and ‘E-Commerce,’ providing a platform for mutual exchange and local market information for companies and investors aiming to enter the Middle East region, including Saudi Arabia. Particularly, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups is continuing support from last year for startups that applied for EWC Korea, conducting document and presentation evaluations, supporting the top ten companies to participate in BIBAN 2024, and managing exhibition booths in the K-Startup integrated pavilion.

 

A representative from Medipixel is presenting at EWC Korea. | Photo by AVING News