Major startup event Slush to hold spin-off meeting in Korea

Slush, one of the world’s largest startup events, is set to hold a spin-off meeting in South Korea this year.

Slush is a startup and tech event held annually in Helsinki, Finland, and among the world’s four-largest festivals along with TechCrunch Disrupt in the US, Web Summit In Portugal and Viva Technology in France. Slush facilitates meetings between the founders of startups and investors such as venture capitalists.

Korea Startup Forum, a private body to support the industry growth, said on Thursday it has been selected the domestic organizer of Slush’D in Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city, about 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to be held in the first half of 2023.

Slush’D is a community-driven movement that empowers teams across the globe to create events for local ecosystems – all in the spirit of Slush’s mission “to create and help founders that change the world,” Slush said. About five to six cities in the world are selected every half year for the spin-off event for local startup communities.

“The hosting of Busan Slush’D is evidence that Busan has potential as a global startup hub,” said KSF Chairperson Jake Park, the CEO of Socar Inc., the country’s major mobility startup. “We aim to succeed in the event by attracting global investors to Busan and creating opportunities for overseas businesses of startups in Busan.”

The country’s top port city was selected instead of Seoul to resolve the imbalance in the startup ecosystem centered on the capital and surrounding areas.

KSF, which has been supporting local startup communities, aims to ease such concentration through Slush’D.

Write to See-Eun Lee at see@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.