SK Group’s headquarters in central Seoul (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — SK Telecom Co. is stepping up efforts to support the growth of startups in the environment, social and governance (ESG) sector.
South Korea’s largest wireless carrier announced that it extended support to a total of 14 startups last year through its ESG Korea 2021 program.
The company provided a variety of support in the areas of education, PR, mentoring and office space in collaboration with about a dozen companies and institutions including Microsoft Korea Co. and SAP Korea Ltd..
According to a report published by SK Telecom, the company had provided support to a total of 343 startups up until last year, starting from its BRAVO Restart program in 2013.
On the back of such experiences, it decided to operate ESG Korea 2022 this year, aimed at supporting the ESG management of startups.
In addition, the company also intends to continue to strive to create a better startup ecosystem by using the 20 billion won (US$16.6 million) ESG fund it formed together with Kakao last year.
The two companies invested 3 billion won in three startups last year, including Coactus, a taxi service provider that gives deaf people job opportunities as taxi drivers, Sensee, a specialist in the creation of braille content for visually handicapped people, and Marvrus, a metaverse-based educational content maker for children.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
