Konkuk University holds first joint IR event for four campus startup organizations, identifies 27 promising startups

[Financial News] Konkuk University held its first joint investment presentation (IR), bringing together the capabilities of four campus startup support departments to connect promising startups directly with major investors, and identified 27 outstanding startup companies and teams. The university was praised for consolidating startup support functions that had been scattered across campus and working with policy finance institutions and major corporations to help early-stage startups tackle their biggest challenges—raising funds and finding sales channels—at the same time. Konkuk University said on the 12th that it had held the 2026 Konkuk IR Festa on the 2nd at NEST AI-Lab Gwangjin (NEST Gwangjin) in Gwangjin District, Seoul. The event was co-hosted for the first time by four campus organizations dedicated to startups: Konkuk University Technology Holdings Co., Ltd.; the Campus Town Project Headquarters of the Anchor Project Group; and the Startup Support Center and Laboratory Startup Innovation Center under the Startup Support Headquarters. The aim was to create synergies by bringing together startup support programs and investor networks that each department had previously operated separately.
Many representatives of major corporations, including KT and SK Networks, and venture capital firms attended the event, along with Kang Seung-jun, chairman of the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, and Kim Yun-jeong, head of the Scale-up Division at the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development. NEST AI-Lab Gwangjin, the event venue, is a startup support space that the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund renovated and opened this year. It was designed to bring the university’s capacity to foster startups together with policy finance institutions’ funding and guarantee support on the ground.
The event was organized by growth stage, with programs for everyone from aspiring entrepreneurs to teams seeking to commercialize research technologies from university laboratories and early-stage startups. Participating companies presented their core technologies and market-entry strategies to investors to demonstrate their business potential. The program also included “reverse pitching,” in which major corporations and their corporate venture capital (CVC) firms first disclosed their investment interests and partnership needs, then proposed collaborations to startups, increasing the potential for concrete business partnerships.
A total of 27 companies and teams received awards at the ceremony jointly organized by the four departments. The top prizes in their respective categories went to T-In Technology Co., Ltd. (technology holding company category) and Onepick (Laboratory Startup Innovation Center category), which developed a Korean-style AI service for analyzing commercial districts. Aspiring and early-stage startup teams recognized for their technological capabilities and growth potential were also among the awardees in the Campus Town Project Headquarters and Startup Support Center categories.
Konkuk University President Won Jong-pil said, “We organized this event to link startup support programs that had previously been run separately by each department, giving startups the opportunity to meet investors and major corporations in one place.” He added, “We will spare no effort in providing systematic support at the university level to ensure that connections made here lead to actual investment and commercialization.”

[email protected] Kim Man-gi Reporter