The Asan Nanum Foundation held the 2025 Chung Ju-yung Startup Competition Demo Day on October 29 at the COEX Grand Ballroom in Seoul, marking the 14th anniversary of Korea’s largest private startup competition. The event brought together 1,500 attendees to witness 23 finalists compete across four tracks, with total prize money of 370 million KRW at stake.
The Chung Ju-yung Startup Competition, named after Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung, is a hands-on startup support program launched by the Asan Nanum Foundation in 2012 to spread entrepreneurship and startup culture nationwide while discovering and supporting startups embarking on new challenges.
Kim Byung-hoon, CEO of APR, a K-beauty unicorn, delivered the keynote address at the event. Kim, who led APR to become a KOSPI-listed company within 10 years of founding and achieved the top market capitalization in Korea’s beauty industry, shared his success formula with aspiring entrepreneurs.
The Global Track (Asan Voyager) targets startups expanding into international markets, particularly the U.S. market. The Diversity Track (Asan Sanghoe) supports startups founded by North Korean defectors, foreign nationals, and people with migrant backgrounds—an expansion from its previous focus solely on North Korean defectors. The Climate Tech Track (Asan UniverCT) backs university student startups addressing climate change, while the Pre-Startup Track (Asan Doers) nurtures university students and recent graduates building global-facing services.
Four startups claimed top honors in their respective categories. Pulse Ad won the Global Track grand prize and received an additional special award from event sponsor Amazon. HydroExpand took the Climate Tech Track grand prize for its environmental solutions. Yeomyeong Street secured the Diversity Track top honor, while SnapScale won the Pre-Startup Track.
