Press

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups held the 'K-Social Venture Festa 2023' at El Tower in Seocho-gu on the 28th to promote the excellence of social venture companies. The festa prepared various programs including success case presentations, panel discussions, and IR contests. Three companies presented success cases: 'TodoWorks (CEO Shim Jae-shin)', 'SixtyHertz (CEO Kim Jong-gyu)', and 'Jarandda (CEO Jang Seo-jung)'. TodoWorks and SixtyHertz are social ventures that grew through government support such as the Social Venture Fostering Project in their early stages, while Jarandda is recognized as a success case within the social venture ecosystem by recently securing Series B investment. Following the success case presentations, the panel discussion featured Root Impact CEO Heo Jae-hyung, Impact Square CEO Do Hyun-myung, and Underdogs CEO Cho Sang-rae discussing ways to expand the Seoul metropolitan area-centered social venture ecosystem to local regions. In the contest, six companies selected through first and second evaluation rounds from 58 applicants competed for the Minister's Award from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. The companies on stage were S&E Company (agricultural product B2B trading platform), Somuna (non-combustion cold chain delivery vehicle), Rebo (smart phone auxiliary engineering device for the visually impaired), Poscore (magnetic powder total manufacturing using steel scrap), Developfun (local urban regeneration space planning and branding), and Mr. Papa (agricultural and fishery products direct trading platform from production areas). Through the judging process, Mr. Papa won the Minister's Award, concluding the event. Im Jung-wook, Director of the Startup, Venture, and Innovation Division who participated in this festa, said, "We will create a good environment so that the social venture ecosystem can develop and establish a growth foundation on its own." Source: 'K-Social Venture Festa 2023' serving as a catalyst for the expansion of the social venture ecosystem - Startup story platform 'Platum'