Most Korean startup funding is administered by 창업진흥원 (KISED). Here is what it runs and who it answers to.

Korea's 2026 startup support announcement was signed by the Minister of SMEs and Startups on 19 December 2025. The agency that administers what it describes is one step down: 창업진흥원, romanised as KISED, the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development.

What it is

KISED describes itself as a public institution under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, established to promote startup formation and support the growth of startup companies. Its greeting page states both the mandate and the subordination in one sentence.

The legal footing is statutory. The history page calls KISED the startup-promotion dedicated agency under Article 51 of the Framework Act on Small and Medium Enterprise Creation Support.

The lineage is longer than one statute. A startup incubation association was approved in April 2000, and a incorporated foundation named 창업진흥원 followed in December 2008.

It was designated a public institution in January 2011, converted to a statutory entity in October 2019, and moved its headquarters from Daejeon to Sejong in December 2020. The designation type changed again in January 2023, from 준정부기관 to 기타공공기관.

Recent milestones are outward-facing: the Global Startup Center opened in July 2024, and a Startup Venture Campus opened in Silicon Valley in January 2026. The president is 유종필.

What it runs

KISED's own menu groups its work into five lines. The commercialisation line — 사업화 — is the one most founders meet: it contains 예비창업패키지, 초기창업패키지, 창업도약패키지, and the 민관공동창업자발굴육성 programme better known as TIPS.

KISED's line	What sits under it
사업화 (commercialisation)	예비창업패키지 · 초기창업패키지 · 창업도약패키지 · 민관공동창업자발굴육성(TIPS) · 창업중심대학 · 재도전성공패키지 · 초격차 스타트업 프로젝트
시설·공간·보육 (space and incubation)	메이커 스페이스 · 창업존 · 창조경제혁신센터 · 글로벌 창업허브 사업
글로벌 (global)	K-스타트업 그랜드 챌린지 · 글로벌 스타트업 센터(GSC) 운영 · 글로벌 액셀러레이팅 지원사업 · K-스타트업 센터 사업
멘토링·컨설팅·교육	청소년비즈쿨 · 스타트업 법률지원
행사·네트워크 (events)	컴업(COMEUP) 2026 · 올해의 K-스타트업 · 민관협력 오픈이노베이션 지원사업

One boundary matters here. The 창조경제혁신센터 sit in KISED's space line nationally, but KISED's site links out to a separate CCEI portal — the regional centres are their own institutions, and their calls are covered separately on this site.

The portal's own taxonomy is wider than KISED's menu. It organises calls into nine categories: 사업화, 기술개발(R&D), 시설·공간·보육, 멘토링·컨설팅·교육, 행사·네트워크, 융자, 인력, 글로벌, and the integrated announcement itself.

Read those nine as the boundary of the portal, not of KISED. 기술개발(R&D) and 융자 appear there because ministries and finance bodies beyond KISED publish their calls on the same portal.

The systems around the programmes

The agency also operates the plumbing. Its site links to the startup-verification system (cert.k-startup.go.kr), the online incorporation system (startbiz.go.kr), 창업에듀 for training, and the startup-space platform.

The incorporation system is the one with published numbers: KISED's own notice credits online incorporation with cutting the process from 14 days to 4, and saving about KRW 500,000 in fees — roughly half.

It also runs 모두의 창업 (modoo.or.kr), the founder-facing information portal, and the 스타트업 원스톱 지원센터, a one-stop consultation channel. The three sit together on one landing page: announcements, context, and consultation.

The portal, and the announcing-body trap

The K-Startup portal is where the calls live. The announcement page states the mechanism plainly: information published on K-Startup is provided at the request of each institution.

The portal is the publisher. The institution named on the call is the administrator. Confusing the two is how founders apply to the wrong body or read the wrong rules.

Once a year the portal publishes a 통합공고 — an integrated announcement covering that year's central-government and local-government startup support. The 2026 edition was posted on 19 December 2025 under Article 14 of the framework act, signed by the Minister of SMEs and Startups.

Its fields are worth reading once, because they repeat on every call. 지원분야: 사업화. 주관기관명: 창업진흥원. Reception runs to 31 December 2026. Contact: 1357. Each individual programme still runs on its own 모집공고 — the integrated announcement is the map, the individual call is the contract.

Who it answers to

KISED answers to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, which sets startup policy and signs the integrated announcement. KISED administers what the ministry announces, and reports as a public institution in the 기타공공기관 category.

For a founder this division has one practical consequence. Policy questions — why a programme exists, how priorities are set — belong to the ministry.

Execution questions — whether your application arrived, when evaluation happens — belong to the administering body named on the call. The phone number 1357 routes both: press 4 for startup support, 5 for 모두의 창업.