■ Orange Planet Startup Foundation, ‘Regular Recruitment for the First Half of 2023’ for Startups with 2 or More Persons
■ Provision of growth programs such as commercialization subsidies, office space, and mentoring centered on professional coaching
■ In addition to the initial investment in Smilegate Investment, the opportunity to attract follow-up investment is also provided.
The Orange Planet Startup Foundation (Center Director Seo Sang-bong, hereinafter ‘Orange Planet’) announced on the 2nd (Monday) that it would conduct a ‘regular recruitment for the first half of 2023’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘regular recruitment’).
The target for recruitment is startups with two or more people, and startups who wish to apply can apply online by 17:00 on January 27 (Fri). More information on regular recruitment can be found on the Orange Planet website.
Orange Planet originally recruited separately for ‘Orange Garden,’ a support program for preliminary startup teams, and ‘Orange Farm,’ a support program for early startups, but starting this year, it will conduct large-scale integrated regular recruitment twice a year. Taking this as an opportunity, it plans to preemptively discover excellent startups amidst the harsh cold weather and provide step-by-step solutions, from idea advancement to service commercialization, preparation for market entry, and investment attraction.
Startups selected through regular recruitment are provided free office space and commercialization subsidies for stable growth. Based on the diagnosis of Orange Planet’s professional coaches, it also provides a growth program consisting of ▲ education tailored to the stage of team growth, ▲ 1:1 close coaching, and ▲ alumni mentoring.
For startups that require seed and initial investment, they are given the opportunity to receive an investment of at least 50 million won and up to 200 million won from Smilegate Investment. There are also opportunities to attract follow-up investment in connection with TIPS and venture capital (VC).
Orange Planet’s strategy is to actively discover startups with fresh ideas and innovative business models during this regular recruitment period and to nurture them into preliminary unicorns by providing customized growth support packages. Orange Planet has supported a total of 39 teams so far as a preliminary startup team growth support program, and in 2022, 3 out of 11 teams succeeded in attracting investment. Starting in 2021, the start-up support program ‘Orange Farm Placement Recruitment’ was launched with Smilegate Investment on the premise of initial investment, and investments were made for a total of 29 start-up teams.
Meanwhile, Orange Planet has supported a total of 320 startups over the past eight years. He has produced leading start-ups such as ‘Banksalad,’ a representative data finance platform company in Korea, ‘Klatum,’ ‘Big Picture Interactive,’ ‘Do Brain,’ and ‘Deep Brain AI.’ These 320 startups achieved remarkable results, attracting a cumulative investment of KRW 599.5 billion and creating more than 4,000 jobs.
An official from Orange Planet said, “With the investment market contracting and the number of startups experiencing difficulties increasing, we expect that this regular recruitment will provide a wide range of support from preliminary startups to early startups.” In order to grow more rapidly, we plan to support in various ways considering the stage of growth.”
