Seoul National University's College of Engineering (Dean Kookheon Char) held a joint agreement ceremony with five leading venture capital companies of Korea on April 27 to jointly discover promising startups based on excellent technology and manpower at Seoul National University.
 
The agreement included Kookheon Char - Dean of SNU College of Engineering, Kisuk Kang - Center Head of the SNU College of Engineering Consulting Center, BSK Investment (CEO Seung-Kwon Paek ), Samho Green Investment Inc. (CEO Soobong Cho), Seoul Techno Holdings, Inc. (CEO Seung Hwan Mok), Enlight Ventures (Head partner Yongmin Kim) and KAIST Venture Investment Holdings (CEO Hoe-Hun Jung).
 
SNU College of Engineering has established the SNU College of Engineering start-up support system to cultivate talented technical start-up individuals on campus, and operates a variety of start-up support programs such as SNU Haedong Junior Startup Support Program and SNU Dongseo Startup Produce 34 to have continuously discovered excellent technology start-up individuals and teams.
 
Since then, it has recognized that step-by-step large-scale venture financing is a prerequisite for outstanding startups to take a leap forward, and has established close cooperation with five of the nation's top institutional investors who specialize in startup investment funds.
 
The total size of venture funds currently in operation by the five institutions exceeds 750 billion won. In the case of starting a university, the size of funds that can be invested in the early stages is important, and the size of funds specializing in early corporate investment run by five institutions amounts to 450 billion won. In addition, most of the representatives and investment reviewers of each institution are composed of Korea's top technology experts and management experts from leading universities such as Seoul National University and KAIST.
 
With the help of a competent investment group, SNU College of Engineering has secured a strong foundation to accelerate the search for talented people and companies.
 
"In order to revitalize technology start-ups amongst not just university students but also that of faculty professors, we will actively provide mentoring and consulting from the perspective of investment experts in each industry so that start-ups can grow into unicorn companies, and if necessary, become partners through funding investment. In particular, please actively participate in discovering valuable companies so that the excellent technology of Seoul National University is not lost," said Kookheon Char, Dean of SNU College of Engineering,
 
"By utilizing the technology consulting service possessed by the center, we will strengthen the industry-academic cooperation relationship that provides excellent engineering technology required by companies already invested by the five investment institutions with the capabilities of SNU College of Engineering faculty and laboratories," emphasized Center Head Kisuk Kang
 
The following summarizes the scope of work that SNU College of Engineering and five institutions agreed on cooperating with each other for this agreement.
 

1. There will be active investment into outstanding technology startups discovered and fostered through the technology start-up system of Seoul National University's College of Engineering.
2. The 5 investment institutions will participate as mentors and judges of Seoul National University's start-up support system to support the discovery of startups based on excellent technology.
3. The SNU Engineering Consulting Center at SNU College of Engineering will provide industry-academic cooperation and technical support to companies funded by the five investment institutions by utilizing the faculty and laboratory capabilities of Seoul National University.