SKC (CEO: Lee Wan-jae), in collaboration with the Ulsan Center for Creative Economy and Innovation and Sunbo Angel Partners, is on the lookout for startups to lead the specialty material industry. The company aims to help companies with great ideas be on the fast track by providing subsidy and business infancy training programs while sharing infrastructure and information including R&D know-how to enable the related industrial ecosystem to work in smooth, healthy ways. SKC is now contributing to the initiative of sharing the infrastructure proposed by the SK Group in pursuit of both social and economic values. 

SCK is recruiting companies to take part in the new material technology contest called "SKC Startup Plus" in collaboration with the Ulsan Center for Creative Economy and Innovation. The support will be provided to startups, small and medium businesses, or individuals with plans to start a business _ _ base__d on an innovative business idea or technology and who can submit applications from March 8 to April 27 to IdeaMaru (http://ideamaru.or.kr). The 5 winning companies will be announced on May 17 _ _ base__d on _ _ document__ review and screenings. Industries for the contest include all fields of specialty material such as △ Petrochemical industry △ Film △ Semiconductor material △ Eco-friendly material △ Mobility material △ Next-gen display material △ Materials for the 4th industrial revolution. 

The winners will be offered a free office at the Ulsan Center for Creative Economy and Innovation for 6 months and will be provided with trainings and mentoring for businesses in infancy. In addition, those teams deemed even more competitive among them will be supported with "TIPS" investment of up to KRW 1 billion from Sunbo Angel Partners as the official operator of TIPS, the official investment project of the Korean government’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

SKC also supports the winners with R&D and commercialization fund of approximately KRW 100 million and shares tangible and intangible infrastructure with them. The company will set up a mentoring group and an advisory team for them while providing opportunities for technical exchanges with the SKC R&D team. The winners will also be able to access the infrastructure of the SKC R&D team for analysis of the new materials they work on and test prototypes if desired. Intangible assets acquired by SKC for more than four decades such as management know-how, technologies, factory operation, and health/hygiene/environment information needed for commercialization will also be made available. 

"SKC Startup Plus" is a follow-up of the "Memorandum of Understanding for Establishing a Technology Platform for the Development of New Materials in the Ulsan Area" entered into by SKC with the Ulsan Center for Creative Economy and Innovation, Sunbo Angel Partners, Ulsan Techno Park, University of Ulsan, and UNIST in September last year. The MoU aimed to support the ecosystem of the materials industry by identifying prospective startups in the industry and enabling them to work on R&D successfully and commercialize the results. SKC has been preparing details with other parties in the MoU. 

If the winners wish, the company will also cooperate with them on commercialization. “The project is a win-win for all parties since the winners will lose very little time if they have better prospects of commercialization, and SKC will explore trends of the material market and identify new business opportunities. We will secure sustainability by boosting social values through shared infrastructure and expanding them into economic values such as joint investment in longer terms," said Weon Gi-don, vice president and chairperson of the Shared Infrastructure Committee of SKC. [End]