GENEVA, Switzerland, (ITC News) – The COMEUP 2024 Festival in the Republic of Korea provides the ideal platform for innovative businesses to pitch ideas and connect with a global audience of investors, corporates, and industry leaders.
Under the International Trade Centre’s Young Startup Academy (YSA) programme, twenty selected businesses, hailing from diverse sectors such as agritech, education, fintech, healthcare technology and energy, sustainability and biotech, showed how to address pressing global challenges at Korea’s largest global startup festival, COMEUP 2024.
The young entrepreneurs gained invaluable exposure by networking and pitching their business ideas to a large pool of industry experts attending the event. They also presented their ventures to a panel of ten Korean investors at the KOSME IR MART ODA Edition, a private event organized by ITC and KOSME.
Their vision, innovative solutions, and market potential impressed the investors, leading to positive feedback, potential partnerships and investment opportunities.
A start-up that joined from YSA Colombia, Innmetec S.A.S, spoke during the Tech Talk 15 on “Revolutionizing HealthTech: Precision 3D Printing & Virtual Surgical Planning”. Founded in 2020 in Medellín, the healthcare technology (short “healthtech”) innovator specializes in digital surgical planning and custom bone implants. It has completed over 600 cases and expanded to markets like Peru.
During the festival, the startups received an excellent response, highlighted by high-level visits to the ITC’s Youth Startup Academy pavilion in COMEUP.
Minister Oh Youngju, vice minister Kim Sung-sup from the ministry of SMEs and Startups of Korea (MSS), vice president Park Jang Hyuk from the Global Business Development Division of KOSME, president Kim Young-chae of the Korea-Africa Foundation (KAF), and the executive director Shirley Vega from ProColombia and the embassy of Colombia in Korea made their visits to encourage and interact with the participating startups.
The minister Oh Youngju emphasised the importance of the partnership with ITC, saying:
“I deeply appreciate the participation of YSA entrepreneurs from Colombia and Uganda at COMEUP. I highly value the partnership between MSS and ITC and would like to continue the collaboration with ITC to promote job creation and development in developing countries.”
As their slogan of this year, COMEUP 2024 served as a catalyst for the “innovation beyond borders” between Korean and African/Latin American startups. The event highlighted the growing significance of emerging markets and the potential for groundbreaking partnerships.
The YSA programme, a joint initiative of the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME), empowers young entrepreneurs in Africa and Latin America by providing comprehensive support, including mentorship, funding, and market access.
The Young Startup Academy is a project funded by KOSME under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups Korea and implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC) in partnership with Hive Colab and the National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) in Uganda and INNpulsa in Colombia. The overall project objective is to contribute to increasing youth employment in both Uganda and Colombia. The project aims to improve the startup ecosystem for young entrepreneurs which will drive innovation and job creation in Africa and Latin America.
