To celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2023, South Korean startup ecosystem builder D.Camp will host the largest startup demo day to date, D.Day All-Star Competition, on November 29. This is the 114th edition of D.Day, which began in June 2013 when D.Camp was formed and is considered the most traditional startup event in Korea. Ten startups including WePair, Medi Node, Poscore, ProvaLabs, and Lattice will compete on the D.Day All-Star stage.

The upcoming competition will showcase all the D.Camp programs designed to support startup growth, including professional mentorship program “Office Hours,” which will continue the run it started in 2014. The number of Office Hours participants has grown from 121 in 2020 to 1,833 as of the third quarter of 2023, and the number of Office Hours events also increased by 587 percent, from 31 to 213 over the same period. The event will also showcase “WorkNect,” which started last December and has been held 28 times across the country, including in Daejeon, Sejong, Busan, and Jeju. WorkNect is an event where entrepreneurs, investors, experts, and other stakeholders work and communicate in one space from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. to revitalize the local startup ecosystem.

“In order to increase the chances of survival of startups, we do not just need external support such as investment and office space, but also educational programs to strengthen their internal stability,” D.Camp CEO Kim Young-duk said. “Identifying and fostering communities that connect people to share information and experiences has become an urgent task in recent years.”

D.Camp operated by the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs has been contributing to the creation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem by identifying healthy and promising startups via D.Day for the past decade. A total of 9,239 companies have applied for D.Day, and 621 companies debuted in the 15-to-1 competition. When D.Camp opened its start-up complex FRONT1 in Gongdeok, Seoul in July 2020, it was compared to France’s “Station F”. While Station F primarily provides office space, D.Camp surpasses it in terms of functionality. Currently, D.Camp in Gangnam and FRONT1 have more than 110 tenants with over 1,000 employees in total.

D.Camp has so far committed 790 billion won ($610 million) in investments, benefiting 3,930 startups. Half of the 18 Korean unicorn companies have been invested in by D.Camp, which has directly invested in 196 startups for a total of 25.8 billion won. This year, the organization is expanding its investments with 31 new companies on the list. While the scale of direct investments is smaller than that of funds, as Korean law prohibits public interest foundations from owning more than 5 percent of a company, D.Camp’s direct investments are credited with helping the startups attract follow-on investments worth 901.4 billion won in total.

By Won Ho-sup and Minu Kim

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