Ministry of SMEs and Startups launches social venture league with up to W150m in support

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said Thursday it will seek out prospective entrepreneurs and early-stage startups with innovative ideas for solving social problems.

The ministry will accept applications for the "Modoo's Startup — Social Innovation Social Venture League" from Thursday through Aug. 19.

The program identifies five pressing social challenges tied to sustainable development and aims to discover and nurture entrepreneurs with innovative technologies or ideas to address them. Eligible participants include prospective founders and companies that have been operating for seven years or less.

The five challenge areas are: closing care gaps in local communities; expanding employment and social participation; improving energy costs and efficiency for small businesses and vulnerable groups; boosting productivity and innovation capacity among small business owners and small and medium-sized enterprises through AI; and promoting resource recycling and resolving waste problems.

The ministry will select around 100 companies through a document review and provide each with 2 million won ($1,360) in impact activity support. A subsequent presentation round will narrow the field to 40 companies, each receiving intensive mentoring worth 5 million won to refine their solutions, assess real-world applicability and leverage public data. Companies seeking credit support will also be connected to impact guarantees through the Korea Technology Finance Corp.

The final selection will take place through a public presentation at "2026 Venture Week" in December. The top prize winner will receive 150 million won in commercialization funding, four runners-up will each receive 100 million won, and five encouragement award recipients will each receive 80 million won.

The program strengthens the social innovation component of the ministry's startup brand "Modoo's Startup," going beyond conventional startup support to focus on cultivating companies that combine social value with business viability. As issues such as care, energy, AI and resource recycling increasingly emerge as new markets, policy support for social ventures addressing these challenges has been expanding.

"Companies that solve the biggest social problems can grow into the greatest innovators and capture future markets," said Noh Yong-seok, first vice minister of SMEs and Startups. "We will spare no policy support to help entrepreneurs tackling social problems develop into social venture companies with strong innovation and growth potential."