Members of the 5th Startup NEST are gathered for a group photo session during a launching ceremony on April 9 at the auditorium of the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund(Kodit) building in Kongdok-dong, Seoul.

Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (Kodit) said it launched the 5th Startup NEST in a ceremony held on April 9 with some 200 people from related organizations and institutions in attendance, led by Chairman Yoon Dae-hi of Kodit and Director Shin Seok-ki of KOTRA, and firms selected by the Startup NEST.

The Startup NEST nurtures new businesses. Its four-stage multi-support program includes search, accelerating, financial support and growth support.

Some 792 teams applied for the 5th Startup NEST out of which 100 teams of hopeful startups and social ventures were selected, 20 more than the preceding selection. They will get a financial support along with tailor-made services in cooperation with the professional organizations.

The financial support include Kodit’s credit guarantees and investment and the systematic support for growth provided by the nine firms in a partnership with the Accelerator, and interest-free loans provided by Woori Bank.

They will also get support for advancement overseas from KOTRA, the Korea International Trade Association, and the Bontu Global center, in addition to the technical consulting from Seoul National University.

Kodit will provide the support to explore the overseas market in cooperation with large firms.

Kodit so far discovered 260 startups through the Startup NEST since 2017 and provided 73 billion won worth of credit guarantees and 6 billion won in investments following the Accelerating process, in addition to help attracting some 200 billion won in investments from the private companies thru the programs connected with Demo Day and VC.

Kodit is ready to provide 30 billion won worth of credit guarantees in addition depending on their future business outlooks.
Chairman Yoon Dae-hi said the Startup NEST is about to take up its position as the representative brand for nurturing reform startups within the three years of their launchings. We plan to give positive support to those excellent startups for their rapid success and furthermore for their jump as Unicon enterprises through tailor-made special programs.

Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (Kodit) will boost its total guarantees this year to 46 trillion won, up 1 trillion won from last year for stable growth of the companies that need to borrow funds to finance their operations.

Kodit led by Chairman Yoon Dae-hi at its headquarters, managers meeting on Feb. 12 agreed to go ahead with the 2019 major operation promotional plan.

Kodit will issue a total of 16 trillion won for the startups to back up the government policies to create jobs and ushering in the 4th Industrial Revolution, 12 trillion won worth of guarantees to the export firms, 8.8 trillion won in guarantees to the companies that are out to pave the way for the 4th Industrial Revolution to take firmly set up its base and 4.5 trillion won to create jobs and maintain them. Kodit is a public financial institution established in June 1976 under the provisions of the KODIT Act.

As stipulated in Article 1 of the Act, the main purpose of the fund is to lead a balanced development of the economy by extending credit guarantees for the liabilities of promising small- and medium-sized enterprises, which lack tangible collateral.

In an attempt to meet SMEs' demand for financing services, the state-run agency provides enterprises with credit guarantee services for the repayment of liabilities assumed by business enterprises in transactions with other companies or institutions.

The credit guarantee services by the agency are to facilitate the financing of SMEs through the credit guarantees and stimulate the sound credit transaction through the efficient management of credit information.

A view of the building in Daegu where Korea Credit Guarantee Fund is located. (Photos: Kodit)