The government will select 250 small- and medium-sized venture companies in the so-called "big three" sectors, including system semiconductors, bio-health and future automobiles, to support research and development and commercialization.
The government announced its support strategy for small and medium-sized venture companies in the "big three" sectors such as system semiconductors, bio and future cars at the Government Complex in Seoul on Dec. 11.
By sector, it is planning to choose 50 companies with growth potential from system semiconductor, 100 companies from bio and health, and 100 companies from future cars (50 self-driving companies, 50 eco-friendly cars).
In the system semiconductor field, it will increase accessibility for small and medium-sized venture companies to utilize ARM's intellectual property rights (IP) by supporting cooperation with ARM, a British semiconductor design company that is leading most of global CPU core markets in the design phase.
During the process phase, it is planning to supply venture investments and policy funds on a large scale to mass-production process by linking them to Samsung Electronics' foundry (conductor consignment production) business.
In the field of smart sensors among semiconductors, it has decided to focus on start-ups related to smart cities such as transportation, environment, and residential areas.
Bio and health fields are divided into medicine, medical devices, digital healthcare, and bio materials for the supports.
In particular, it decided to work on creating a virtuous cycle ecosystem in which large companies commercialize candidate materials that were developed by start-ups and venture businesses.
To that end, the government plans to actively find potential startups with technological capabilities and focus on research and development at the early stage before the development of candidate materials.
The digital healthcare sector will focus on boosting startups that incorporate IT convergence technologies. Future cars will be divided into self-driving cars and eco-friendly cars.
In the self-driving car sector, it will co-discover promising startups in Korea in the self-driving field with Germany's Daimler, a global finished car company and the parent company of Mercedes-Benz.
"We will support small and medium-sized venture companies and start-ups in the big three sectors to have technical and capital capabilities to the level where they can compete in the market on their own," said an official of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
