April 16, 2024

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Startup festival “Try Everything 2020” kicks off online Sept. 16, the Seoul Metropolitan Government said on Sept. 15.

The three-day event will be held in partnership with the 2020 World Knowledge Forum, an annual business convention hosted by Maekyung Media Group.

Due to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases, all programs will take place online except for one-on-one meetups between startups and venture capitalists and one-to-five meetups between Kosdaq firms as well as pre-unicorn companies and rising startups.

Leaders who will share their insights during the event include Tim Draper, an American investor and chairman of DFJ (Draper Fisher Jurvetson), Saeed Amidi, founder of Plug and Play, John Hennessy, chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, and Jack Ma, former chairman of Alibaba Group.

The event will provide a chance for startup experts to discuss how Seoul will develop its startup ecosystem and how startups will enter global markets. 

“Try Everything 2020” will also be attended by 50-strong global startup experts including J.F. Gauthier from the US, Bouke Marsman from the Netherlands, Magnus Grimeland from Singapore and Yann Gozlan from France, and about 100 accelerators and investors including PNP and NLVC from the US and Korelya Capital from France and 300 startups.

Sixty startups will participate in eight rounds of contests to win a chance to attract investment and enter overseas markets. More than 100 startups will participate in an online exhibition to grab an opportunity to attract investment.

The event is part of the capital city’s continued efforts to put Seoul in the global startup ecosystem. Seoul was ranked as one of the world’s top 20 ecosystems in the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020 released by Startup Genome, a global research and policy advisory organization committed to accelerating the success of their startup ecosystem. The value of Seoul’s startup ecosystem is evaluated at 4.7 trillion won ($4 billion).

Mayor Seo Jeong-hyeop said, “The challenges and innovations ranging from virus quarantine technologies to diverse non-face-to-face services, in which startups play a central role in providing, are working as a rudder of opportunity to go to an unknown civilization of the post-COVID-19.”

“Even though the event will be online due to the COVID-19 situation, it will satisfy the needs of global startups that are eager for a signal of challenges, hope and opportunities for advancing into the world markets. I hope many citizens and startups show interest and participate in the event,” Seo added.

For more information about this event, please visit the website at www.tryeverything.or.kr.

Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)