The startup scene in Korea, Republic of

The Busan Startup Portal reported 10,987 technical startups in Busan at year-end 2025. Its time series shows a 2.8% increase in 2025 from 2024 and a count 2.8% below its 2022 value. (48319, 48320)

As of June 2026, the portal counted 78 funds totaling KRW 1.5689 trillion, 43 accelerators, 30 venture-capital firms, and 152 startup-support programs. (48321, 48322)

Busan Technopark lists university R&D seed planning, university-industry technology brokerage, demand-led open labs, and a regional university technology-holding commercialization platform. It also lists CENTAP, Green Startup Town, a Busan angel-investment matching fund, a maritime-logistics workforce academy, and power-semiconductor technical and workforce support. (48324, 48325)

The Busan Startup Portal’s investor directory lists BK Investment, K Bridge Investment, and Sunbo Angel Partners as Busan-headquartered. It describes BK Investment’s interests as shipbuilding and suppliers; K Bridge Investment’s as marine, fisheries, platforms, and IoT; and Sunbo Angel Partners’ as green energy, batteries, industrial hardware and software, and deep tech. The directory identifies Coolidge Corner Investment as Seoul-headquartered with a Busan branch. (48326, 48327)

Busan Port Authority says 1876 BUSAN has operated since 2022 with Busan Metropolitan City, Korea Ocean Business Corporation, and Korea Startup Forum to support early maritime-technology companies. The published support model spans set-up, build-up, and scale-up and offers test-bed use of Busan Port facilities. On March 31, 2026, Busan Technopark was selected to operate the support programming; the release does not establish current intake, specified eligibility, or an open application route. (48328, 48329, 48330, 48336)

In its October 2026 Busan directory, StartupBlink ranked Sentbe first and described its cross-border remittance and payments business; Sendy second, with a cloud-based on-demand freight platform; and Naraspace Technology fifth, with CubeSat and small-space-systems work. StartupBlink says company scoring uses investment, employee count, and quarterly website traffic. These directory listings do not establish the listed companies’ Busan origins or headquarters. (48331, 48332, 48333)