Seoul’s first and only global startup convention Try Everything that will offer up-and-coming enterprises rare opportunities to meet global venture investors and accelerators at one place to get funding ideas and mentoring services is ready to roll this week.

Try Everything – co-hosted by Seoul Metropolitan Government and Maeil Business Newspaper – will be held from Sept. 16 to 18 at the Shilla Seoul hotel in central Seoul. The global fair, which is claimed to be Asia’s biggest startup extravaganza, will offer startups to meet investors and accelerators and fellow established startups for one-on-one meetings and one-on-five mentoring meetings. About 50 investors will take part in the event for each 30-minute meetings with promising startups at 15 independent booths at the venue.

Startups that wish to participate in the meet-ups should submit applications via Try Everything website and follow up on official mobile app. They can also apply for mentor-mentee programs with mentors Dream Factory Studio in animation, Synteka Bio in bio, and Luxrobo in robot.

Startup founders and investors will also join to share startup environment in Seoul and the latest trends in the global startup ecosystem, including U.S. startup Genome, Northern Light Venture Capital, France’s Creative Valley, Korelya Capital, Singapore’s Antler, and China’s CUE Group. Accelerators and venture capitals Plug and Play and Cento Ventures will also join the event.

Try Everything participants will be able to meet global startup at panel sessions, including Jeffrey Lee, co-founder of Northern Light Venture Capital; Tina Wei, senior advisor at Oceanpine Capital; Hur Jin-ho, partner at SEMA Translink; Abraham Shim, founder and chief executive of Ziktalk OU; Sohn Yu-jin, director at ICONLOOP; and Jason Han, chief executive of Ground X. The sessions will be live-streamed on YouTube.

According to Startup Genome, a global research agency for startup ecosystem, Seoul stood at No. 20 in global startup ecosystem ranking in 2020. The startup ecosystem value of the Korean capital city that aims to move up to No. 5 is estimated to be at $39 billion. The city, however, need to bolster investor-startup connectivity and early investment compared to other locations.

Try Everything is expected to expedite meetings between investors and startup founders to boost early investment and provide the opportunity for startups to make overseas entries, which will help Seoul’s overall competitiveness in global startup ecosystem ranking.

Try Everything, which will be held alongside the 21st World Knowledge Forum, the annual business convention hosted by Maekyung, is to seek innovation momentum to combat the challenging times. The inaugural event will be held under the theme “Make it Possible,” with every session to be live-streamed on YouTube.

By Lee Duk-joo and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]