Last autumn, we announced that Foundry Europe was selected as the European accelerator for a global expansion program organised by The Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED). This unique program supports global expansion of Korean innovation by activating Investor Relations (IR) in view of matching scale-up stage startups with overseas investors.
From over 70 applicants in total, around half were interested specifically in expanding into the European market and in the end, 10 were selected for this program. The startups represented various industries and were at different stages of their commercialization, but what is common for all of them, is ambition to grow.
During the three-month program, Foundry organised various seminars and virtual workshops to provide relevant information about European market expansion. This included pitch coaching, sales training, financial and cultural considerations, to name a few key topics. The sessions were organised in collaboration with our key partners, the market-scaling experts MasonBower and capital services specialists White Castle Partners.
The seminars and workshops were designed to train the companies for two pitching events organised specifically for this program, to showcase Korean innovation to European investors and potential business partners.
The program was intense - but the reward in the end was a clearer pathway looking at Europe. The companies received very concrete feedback and were facilitated with initial connections that can help them get started on their path towards the European market. Several MOU’s were signed after the main pitching event, to formalise the intent of further collaboration.
The program was finalised by the end of January, followed by feedback sessions and continuation of discussions during the month of February. The companies are now taking the learnings to prepare for the next steps.
All in all, Foundry received great feedback from the startups on the program, as well as the collaboration.The content was considered very helpful and practical in regards to planning the next steps. One of the startups, GymT which is providing a new approach for sports training, concluded the program by stating, that the team “deeply appreciated the support and the three-month program helped us to understand the European market and figure out what we should prepare for the global expansion.”
This program was also a great way to turn the collaboration between Foundry and KISED into something more concrete. We look forward to further collaboration!