Press

Underdogs announced that it successfully held the 'Asia Tomorrow Network 2019 (ATN)' for four days from June 25-28 at Seoul Innovation Park and surrounding areas in Seoul. ATN is an annual networking event hosted by Underdogs to promote social innovation startup culture and entrepreneurship ecosystem exchange in the Asia region. This year, under the theme 'Weaving the Wave of Social Innovation in Asia,' the event provided expert lectures for social innovation professionals from 10 countries including Japan, Cambodia, and Taiwan, and offered opportunities to visit domestic social organizations and institutions. Additionally, at the International Forum on Social Venture Policy Research held on June 26, participants compared and analyzed the social innovation policy ecosystem and shared ideas for collaboration with potential domestic partners. Subsequent workshops conveyed Underdogs' seven-step social innovation startup methodology and team-building solutions for improved teamwork, while also conducting comparative case analysis and feedback sharing programs from various countries. The event concluded by sharing participant networking ideas based on discussions from the program, deriving actual collaboration methods, and pledging continued mutual exchange. Sang-rae Cho, CEO of Underdogs, said, 'Through this event, we were able to build a Korea-Asia social innovation network and establish mutual trust,' adding 'We will continue to make efforts to sustain exchanges for the development of social innovation startup culture and ecosystem.' Meanwhile, Underdogs nurtures social innovation entrepreneurs and, as a social enterprise, jointly plans and operates social innovation startup programs with local governments, institutions, and companies in addition to its own programs. To date, it has produced over 5,800 social innovation entrepreneurs and obtained social enterprise certification from the Ministry of Employment and Labor in March.