“The experience of building a local track record in Basel became a major springboard for entering the European market.”
Park Shin-gi, head of the artificial intelligence (AI) healthcare corporations EightStudio who joined this year’s “Seoul-Basel Startup Hub Acceleration Program,” said this at the “Seoul-Basel Innovation Networking Event” held at the Embassy of Switzerland in Korea on the 21st.
Korean corporations participating in the Seoul–Basel startup hub acceleration program share their results at the Embassy of Switzerland in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the 21st. From left: Jang Su-yeon, Priventotics CEO; Jeong Ju-won, Bespex CEO; Park Sin-gi, Eight Studio CEO. /Courtesy of Kim Song-yi, Reporter
Park explained that to enter the European market, corporations must meet three requirements: ▲ European medical device certification ▲ securing local adoption and validation results (references) ▲ compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Park added that through this program, the company built a local track record of technology adoption and validation, and based on that, was able to sign a contract with Charité, a leading large university hospital in Germany.
The Seoul-Basel Startup Hub Acceleration Program is a project in which the “Innovation Office,” the entrepreneurship and innovation unit at the University of Basel in Switzerland, and Seoul Bio Hub in Hongneung, Seoul, cooperate to support early-stage life sciences corporations in Korea in entering the European market. It connects promising startups in Seoul with local research institutes, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry in Basel. Launched in 2022 as part of the sister-city partnership between Seoul and Basel, it has been running to date.
Each year, 10 corporations in Seoul participate in the program, and 6 of them also join the local program in Basel. At the event, three companies—including EightStudio, which took part in this year’s program; Bespex, a femtech corporations developing women’s health technologies; and Privenotics, an AI-based cancer diagnostics corporations—shared the results they achieved through the program.
Basel is considered a city with an optimal environment for life sciences startups to grow. Although it is a small city with a population of about 200,000, about 800 life sciences corporations are clustered there, including global pharmaceutical company Roche. Held in Basel, which has a solid industrial ecosystem, this program serves as a bridgehead for Korean startups with technological prowess to enter the European market.
An Innovation Office official explained, “Early-stage startups can meet researchers, clinical partners, contract manufacturers, and business development managers at pharmaceutical companies all within a week through programs run in Basel.”
As it expanded to other countries, the Seoul-Basel Startup Hub Acceleration Program evolved into “Superpella,” a global startup development program. More than 60 startups from 15 countries around the world have participated in Superpella so far, and these corporations have attracted over $140 million (about 185 billion won) in investment in total. Proteina, a domestic biotech startup that joined the program, entered the KOSDAQ market in July last year through a technology special listing.
※ This article has been translated by AI. Share your feedback here.