Seoul’s COMEUP 2025 Aims to ‘Recode the Future’ with Global Startup Surge

COMEUP 2025 is shaping up to be quite the scene in Seoul this December, with South Korea’s Ministry of SMEs and Startups confirming the festival will run from 10 to 12 December at COEX. I remember chatting with a founder at a past Arageek meetup who said COMEUP felt like “a pressure cooker of ideas”, and honestly, that was spot on. This year’s edition seems ready to dial things up again, carrying the slogan “Recode the Future” to highlight how startups are pushing beyond old industry and geographic limits.

The organisers say the event will revolve around three main themes — Tech, Global and Entrepreneurship — with conferences, exhibitions, investor relations sessions and open innovation activities all packed into the three-day schedule. Tareq Amin from the Saudi AI firm HUMAIN is among the announced speakers, alongside Park Sunghyun of Rebellions, which should make for an interesting mix. And believe it or not, COMEUP has come a long way since its 2019 debut, with last year drawing over 150 foreign startups from 45 countries.

One big push this year is on practical cooperation with global investors. The plan includes bringing in a broad mix of VCs, CVCs and accelerators from abroad, giving Korean startups more direct access to funding conversations. There’ll be 1:1 meetings through a mix of pre‑arranged and self‑matched sessions, plus investor booths and briefings tied to promising companies. I reckon founders will appreciate this focus — fundraising can be a bit of a faff, especially when you’re trying to catch the attention of busy global investors.

Large corporates aren’t just sitting on the sidelines either. Companies like Mercedes‑Benz, Hyundai Motor, NVIDIA and NHN will join the Open Innovation programme, hosting booths, sharing past collaboration stories and meeting startups face to face. On the flip side, sometimes these big-company–startup matchups look great on paper but don’t lead anywhere… but hopefully this crowd proves me wrong.

International participation is set to grow too. Seven countries, including Saudi Arabia, India, Japan and Canada, will run national pavilions this year, up from four in 2024. And new entrants — Australia, Angola and Sierra Leone — will send startups to take part in exhibitions, IR sessions and networking events. For a festival aiming to be truly global, this feels like a healthy step.

There’s also a fresh focus on Social Venture startups, especially those tackling issues such as the climate crisis. Founders including Kim Jongkyu of 60Hertz will talk about how they’re weaving social impact with tech innovation. Impact investors like SoPoong Ventures and Impact Foundation will be on-site to offer guidance, which might be a relief for teams trying to figure out the often murky world of impact capital.

For general visitors, especially students, the organisers are adding more ways to explore the startup ecosystem. A guided “COMEUP Docent Tour” will help newcomers navigate the event, while a COMEUP Flea Market will showcase consumer-facing startups. And on 12 December, teams from universities — including Seoul National University — will take the stage to present startup ideas. It’s always good to see early‑stage talent given real platforms; it reminds me of the first youth pitch competition I attended in the region, where half the slides wouldn’t load properly but the ambition was unmistakeable (and I was chuffed to bits for them).

Several side events will run within the venue, including the OpenData X AI Challenge opening ceremony, the big multi‑ministry contest “Challenge! K‑Startup 2025 King of Kings Final”, and the 2025 K‑Startup Grand Challenge Demo Day, where the top foreign startup will be selected. The organisers say these additions should make the whole festival even richer — though keeping track of everything might be, well… a little hectic, you know?

Minister Han Sung‑sook noted that the event will showcase everything from deep‑tech breakthroughs to global expansion stories and wider social entrepreneurship, emphasising the role of startups in “newly rewriting” the future. Pre‑registration is available on the COMEUP website until 8 December for anyone keen to attend. And if it’s anything like previous years, it’ll definately be a busy one.

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