The Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation held the 2025 Impact Startup Day to share achievements of Korean impact startups and explore sustainable growth directions. Under the slogan “Beyond Impact, The Next Standard,” the event featured presentations from 10 impact startups that go beyond solving social problems to pursue sustainable business models.
Over the past 13 years the foundation has nurtured 354 teams through its H-on Dream Startup Ground program, achieving cumulative sales of 1.68 trillion won, creating 6,569 jobs, and securing 377.9 billion won in investments.
At the event, the early-stage incubating track awards went to: Grand Prize winner ‘Returnall,’ an e-commerce returns inspection service company; Excellence Awards to ‘Plantner,’ an eco-friendly organic fertilizer developer, and ‘Ecomarine,’ a global HDPE ship market leader developing eco-friendly marine materials; and Merit Awards to ‘Wings,’ a child development data management solution developer, and ‘Flickdone’ which creates barrier-free content solutions for the visually impaired.
For the growth-stage accelerating track: Grand Prize winner ‘ANPoly,’ an advanced eco-friendly nanocellulose material developer; Excellence Awards to ‘Madeleine Memory,’ which innovates the secondhand fashion market in partnership with fashion companies, and ‘Korea Housing Information,’ which digitalizes apartment management fee services; and Merit Awards to ‘Pinwheels,’ a company creating sustainable jobs for artists with disabilities, and ‘Nurfit,’ which addresses healthcare accessibility issues for vulnerable populations.
This year, 20 teams were selected to receive financial support of up to 150 million won, along with various growth opportunities including global expansion (US and Singapore), business consulting, investment connections, and co-working space access.
