Published: 02 Feb. 2026, 00:00<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n President Lee Jae Myung delivers opening remarks at a \u201cNational Startup Era Strategy Meeting\u201d at the Blue House on Jan. 30. The slogan, which translates to \u201cK-startups build the future,\u201d is displayed in the background. [PROVIDED BY CHEONG WA DAE]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/span> <\/div>\n
The government has declared a sweeping shift toward a state-led startup society. At a \u201cNational Startup Era Strategy Meeting\u201d chaired on Friday, President Lee Jae Myung pledged to position Korean startups as a core engine of national growth. The government announced a \u201cStartup for All\u201d project that will select 5,000 aspiring founders, including 4,000 in technology fields and 1,000 in local industries, and provide each with 2 million won ($1,380) in seed funding. It also plans to launch a 50 billion won \u201cStartup Boom Fund\u201d to concentrate investment in early-stage founders chosen through the program.
The initiative is timely and welcome. Korea\u2019s large conglomerate-centered industrial structure has reached its limits, and the rise of AI is ushering in an era of job displacement. But while the project may serve as a pathway toward a national startup era, that cannot be the end goal. For entrepreneurship to translate into genuine national competitiveness, policy must shift from quantitative expansion to qualitative growth that nurtures game changers capable of leading global markets.
The key lies in deep tech-based startups that commercialize breakthrough technologies that remain undiscovered in universities and research institutes. Israel\u2019s rise as a \u201cstartup nation\u201d did not stem from the numbers of founders but from concentrating national research and development capacity in fields requiring advanced capabilities such as AI, quantum technology and biotechnology, as well as from building systems that successfully bring those technologies to market.
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