Press

On the 22nd, the "Again, Impact 2025" conference was held at Community House Masil in Jung-gu, Seoul. On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, the social enterprise Underdogs changed its corporate name to "UD IMPACT" and held an event to unveil its strategy for the next decade. The conference featured presentations from practitioners building the impact ecosystem, exploring growth models in various fields including local communities, artificial intelligence (AI) technology, and global expansion. Around 150 stakeholders in the social innovation field and entrepreneurs gathered at the venue. During his keynote speech, Kim Jung-heon, CEO of UD IMPACT, said, "For the past 10 years, we have met 20,000 entrepreneurs with the belief that founders can change the world's landscape, dreaming of a 'rebellion of the weak,'" adding, "We decided to call such people who drive change through action not simply entrepreneurs, but 'act-preneurs.'" He continued, "We are currently in the IPO process, and if successful, it would be the first case among social enterprises," stating, "We view this challenge as a process of implementation for change." Session 1, themed "Redefining Local," discussed the future of local startups and regional changes brought about by the AI era. Shin Hyun-sang, professor at Hanyang University's School of Business, said in his opening remarks, "While expectations for AI technology are high, the actual driver of solving social problems is ultimately the implementer who executes AI—the act-preneur," emphasizing that "the concept of act-preneurs creating both financial and social value is becoming increasingly important." Professor Shin also argued that the significant reduction in time spent on planning and analysis preparation stages across various industries due to AI technology adoption is actually an opportunity. He stated, "Thanks to AI, we can focus more resources on areas requiring human emotion and creativity," adding, "If we can dedicate more time and capacity to the essential aspects of implementation, the creation of social value will also increase." Woo Young-seung, head of UD IMPACT's Startup Division 2, introduced changes in region-based startup education. He explained, "While startup typically takes 6 months, using AI agents reduces it to 2 months, and AI also enables customized education," noting that "startup education is changing to a form where implementation can be emphasized through AI coaching systems." He continued, "Things that were difficult to measure in the past can now be predicted and tracked through AI," adding, "Ultimately, as planning speed dramatically improves, the likelihood of success for startups utilizing regional resources is also increasing." Session 2, themed "Impact Beyond Borders," introduced cases of global business promotion. Lee Tae-hyung, head of UD IMPACT's Global Division, explained, "The biggest characteristic is that we selected a market where we could excel rather than one that everyone is paying attention to," explaining why Japan and India were chosen as their first markets. In Session 3, themed "New Growth Centered on Impact," presentations covered the growth stages and roles of social enterprises and UD IMPACT's IPO promotion status. Seo Jong-sik, head of the Enterprise Growth Division at the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency, said, "When the Social Enterprise Promotion Act was enacted, we couldn't imagine the emergence of IPOs or innovative social enterprises," calling for "the need to reorganize institutional gaps fragmented by the current certification system, cooperatives, and social ventures." Moon Sung-hwa, vice president of UD IMPACT, explained the IPO process scheduled for April next year. Vice President Moon stated, "Pursuing an IPO as a social enterprise is a process of having our social enterprise model's sustainability validated by the capital market." CEO Kim Jung-heon remarked, "Act-preneurs' implementation is expanding beyond Korea to Asia," and added, "While we supported entrepreneurs' implementation over the past 10 years, in the next decade we will become the subject of implementation alongside them and create change together."