Press

GS Retail announced on the 28th that it held a final presentation and awards ceremony for the 'Social Impact Project' conducted on the 27th at its headquarters in Munrae-dong, Seoul to support social venture startups. The final winner of the awards ceremony, evaluated based on social value and business sustainability, was the online and offline childcare solution service startup team 'Growing Mom,' which won the grand prize of 30 million won and the opportunity to provide childcare consultation services within GS Retail in the future. Furthermore, the remaining 7 teams will also receive support utilizing GS Retail's infrastructure. The 'Social Impact Project' is a program designed to provide education and startup opportunities to prospective entrepreneurs wanting to start social ventures, early-stage startups that have already started but need expert mentoring and business support, and young people seeking to systematically learn about entrepreneurship. Implemented jointly with Underdogs and Social Bank, the 'Social Impact Project' was structured in three stages: 'Practical training' to cultivate entrepreneurs, 'Intensive training' to select items and support commercialization, and 'Performance sharing and post-linkage' to support subsequent business operations. Starting with basic training in November of last year, 16 teams received practical training, and as of March this year, 8 final teams were selected to receive intensive venture startup training, went through prototype manufacturing stages, and reached the awards stage. At the awards ceremony held this day, each team presented the results of their 8-month journey under the theme of 'Ventures that can solve social problems.' The winning team 'Growing Mom' in the solution content field presented a business model that provides online childcare consultation services to solve parenting problems faced by parents. The team announced plans to create jobs by employing career-interrupted women through curation business in an online-offline mixed format in the future and to further develop corporate-linked consultation services for working mothers. A GS Retail official said, "Through this project, we aimed to lower the entry barriers for social businesses that want to start in the manufacturing and media sectors," adding, "Furthermore, we hope to create a culture that empathizes with efforts to solve social problems."