Gyeonggi Startup Agency Urges Shift From Volume to Quality, Deep-Tech Scale-Up
The Gyeonggido Business & Science Accelerator (GBSA) has proposed shifting Gyeonggi Province’s startup policy from quantitative growth toward a scale-up focus.
The GBSA made the proposal on the 27th with the release of its ‘Gyeonggi Startup Ecosystem Trends Report.’ The report analyzed the overall startup ecosystem of Gyeonggi Province, including startups, venture investment, startup infrastructure, and research and development capabilities, based on the latest published statistics.
According to the report, Gyeonggi Province has the largest technology-based startup base in the country. As of last year, Gyeonggi’s technology-based startups numbered 71,081, accounting for 32.2% of the national total, the highest in the country. The share of tech startups among all startups also surpassed 20% for the first time.
As manufacturing startups declined and information and communications startups increased, tech startups showed a trend of reorganizing around knowledge-based service industries.
Venture investment also continued its growth. New venture investment in Gyeonggi Province in 2025 stood at 1.5888 trillion won, up 22.6% from the previous year. Its share of national venture investment expanded to 23.3%. Startups that attracted investment of 10 billion won or more accounted for 22.3% of the national total, the second highest after Seoul.
The startup base and innovation capabilities were also the highest in the country. Gyeonggi’s public startup spaces accounted for 18.7% of the national total, the largest share, while corporate research institutes and corporate research personnel also recorded the largest scale in the country.
By contrast, the private investment base was relatively lacking. Startup planners accounted for 9.8% of the national total, and small and medium-sized business startup investment firms stood at 7.0%.
The report proposed reorganizing public startup spaces into platforms connecting investment and networks, and strengthening a deep-tech startup ecosystem centered on strategic industries such as AI, manufacturing AX, advanced semiconductors, and advanced bio. It also identified the creation of a Seoul metropolitan area-linked startup ecosystem—connecting Gyeonggi’s industrial and demonstration base with Seoul’s investment and global networks—as a task.
“We will strengthen the scale-up support system so that promising companies in the province can leap into high-growth companies by linking Gyeonggi’s excellent tech startup base with private investment and global networks,” GBSA President Kim Hyun-gon said. “We will also expand data-based policy research and strengthen our role as a policy think tank leading Gyeonggi’s industrial and startup policies.”
