Seoul CCEI: ‘Outstanding Results at Challenge! K-Startup… We Will Spare No Effort in Supporting Growth’

Challenge! K-Startup is the largest startup competition in South Korea, jointly hosted by 10 government ministries. Among these, the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center operates the General Division of the Innovation Startup League. IT Dong-A takes a closer look at promising startups that have grown together with the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center.

‘Challenge! K-Startup,’ South Korea’s largest startup competition jointly organized by 10 government ministries (Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Education, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Defense Acquisition Program Administration, and Korean Intellectual Property Office), attracts a large number of startups every year. It selects and awards startups across diverse fields including defense, content, sports, tourism, environment, women-focused initiatives, new real estate industries, and intellectual property. Existing entrepreneurs can participate in the Startup League, while aspiring entrepreneurs can join the Pre-Startup League, and the total prize money amounts to as much as KRW 1.38 billion.

Since its launch in 2016, 130 startups that have won the grand prize in this competition have employed 2,093 people, attracted KRW 839.2 billion in investment, and generated KRW 217.7 billion in revenue. The 2025 competition recorded the largest scale ever, with 7,377 startups participating. Through ministry-specific preliminary leagues, 225 startups advanced to the integrated main round. Among them, a total of 30 startups—15 from the Pre-Startup League and 15 from the Startup League—advanced to the final stage, the Grand Finale. Based on the evaluation results at the Grand Finale, a total of 20 startups are awarded in each league, including one Grand Prize winner, Top 3 Excellence Awards, Top 7 Outstanding Awards, and Top 10 Encouragement Awards.

Among these, the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center (hereinafter referred to as Seoul CCEI) operates the Innovation Startup League (General). This division is highly competitive, with approximately 1,000 startups applying each year, and Seoul CCEI has consistently produced award-winning results annually. In this year’s competition, 1,122 startups applied through Creative Economy Innovation Centers nationwide, and among them, 40 startups that enhanced both technological capabilities and growth potential with support from Seoul CCEI advanced to the integrated main round of the Innovation Startup League (General).

Seoul CCEI provides various forms of support to startups that advance to the integrated main round of the Challenge! K-Startup 2025 Innovation Startup League (General), including networking opportunities with previous award-winning startups and open innovation meetups with large corporations. It also offers IR pitching consulting and capacity-building programs aimed at winning awards, as well as business linkage with regional Creative Economy Innovation Centers. This structure helps startups strengthen their fundamentals and clearly highlight their strengths in competition.

Based on support from Seoul CCEI, the 40 startups that advanced to the integrated main round of the Innovation Startup League (General) competed in ministry-specific preliminary leagues of Challenge! K-Startup 2025. Among them, 10 startups advanced to the integrated main round. These included PlankLab, a company developing semiconductor digital exposure systems attachable to microscopes; Lonic, which introduced a modular AI cooking robot cube; Amously, a manufacturer of process control optimization solutions that manage variability in semiconductor manufacturing; Somni, an AI content company addressing office workers’ fatigue and insomnia; Team Limited, which provides a targeted marketing solution based on online and offline receipts; and HOP, which supports autonomous driving in environments without GPS signals such as indoors and underground spaces.

In addition, Riad Corporation, which developed an LLM-based automated quotation and reservation AI platform for global B2B travel agencies; PulseAd, which introduced an AI-based connected retail media platform to improve e-commerce advertising efficiency for retail sellers; Beyond Medicine, which developed the world’s first digital therapeutic specialized for temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) by combining AI-based facial recognition technology with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) content; and Pepper & Salt, a company developing a one-stop solution service for K-content through content value analysis (with patents), also advanced to the integrated main round, proving their capabilities.

Among the startups that participated in the integrated main round with support from Seoul CCEI, Amously, PlankLab, PulseAd, and Riad Corporation advanced to the Grand Finale, a stage reached by only 30 startups out of the 7,377 participating in Challenge! K-Startup 2025. Following the Grand Finale held on December 12 at COEX in Seoul, PlankLab received the Excellence Award in the Pre-Startup League, while in the Startup League, Riad Corporation received a Special Award, and Amously and PulseAd received Excellence Awards.

Award-winning companies of Challenge! K-Startup 2025 will subsequently receive follow-up support, including preferential evaluation in various startup support programs such as the Pre-Startup, Early-Stage, and Scale-Up Packages.

Seoul CCEI stated, “Over the past decade, we have actively supported startups. In 2026, Creative Economy Innovation Centers nationwide will continue to support companies advancing to the Challenge! K-Startup Innovation Startup League through improved programs and a one-stop startup support center.”

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