The Gyeonggi Startup Summit 2025 was held from October 1 to October 2 at the Suwon Convention Center in Gwanggyo, establishing itself as a key international investment fair for promising startups. Hosted by Gyeonggi Province and organized by the Gyeonggi Business & Science Accelerator (GBSA), the event aimed to connect innovative startups with global investors and support their expansion into the international market. The summit served as a global startup festival, bringing together founders, domestic and international investors, and industry stakeholders to share opportunities for innovation and growth.
Gyeonggi Governor Kim Dong-yeon expressed his ambition for the event to help create a third venture boom in the province, positioning it as a startup paradise. A central component of the summit was the series of IR pitching competitions, which provided startups with a stage to present their business models and innovative ideas directly to a panel of investors.
Additionally, the summit featured extensive exhibition booths where 216 companies and institutions, including 180 startups from both Korea and abroad, showcased their technologies and products, with a notable presence from the AI and robotics sectors. To facilitate direct networking, the event organized over 1,500 one-on-one investor meetups and business matching sessions, more than doubling the networking cases from the previous year.
The summit also hosted a variety of conferences and seminars, with over 50 sessions on topics like AI, Deep Tech, and ESG, featuring more than 100 speakers from leading companies such as AWS, Alibaba Cloud, and Furiosa AI. Furthermore, the summit included Open Innovation programs with eight major global corporations, designed to foster collaboration and partnerships between established companies and emerging startups.
A significant feature of this year’s event was its enhanced collaboration with international startup platforms, including South Summit from Spain and Plug and Play from the United States. This partnership brought prominent global venture capitalists and innovative companies to the summit, offering participating startups customized investment connections and business opportunities.
The event was open to all startups, regardless of their location, seeking investment and business meetups. The 2024 summit set a strong precedent, with investment consultations reaching 103.6 billion KRW, highlighting the event’s substantial scale and impact.
