SparkLabs and Korean Air launch IoT innovation center with help of Incheon government

South Korean startup accelerator SparkLabs and Hanjin, the “chaebol” conglomerate that operates Korean Air, have launched a government-supported innovation center in Incheon. It completes South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s plan to build 17 such facilities across the country to promote domestic entrepreneurship.

SparkLabs co-founder John Lee tells Tech in Asia that the center will be run as an accelerator, with each startup receiving US$50,000 in exchange for up to 6 percent equity. “We’ll also consider a follow-on [investment] from our seed fund,” he adds. The firm will tap its global network of mentors, primarily based in Silicon Valley, to assist the resident startups with their ideas and business models. Hanjin will oversee the center’s coworking space.

Lee anticipates that the center will eventually house 10 startups, with four to six moving in initially – though he says there is room for 20 or more. Applications will open later this year. The facilities themselves, along with an operational budget, are provided by the government.

In line with Songdo, the SparkLabs-run “smart city” accelerator that already exists within Incheon, the new center will focus on the internet of things.

Of the 16 other government-sponsored innovation centers across Korea – which include partnerships with the likes of Samsung, LG, Hyundai, and Lotte – the Incheon facility is the only to tie up with an accelerator or venture capital firm.

President Park’s innovation centers are just one piece of her ambitious plan to boost Korea’s entrepreneurial landscape. In February 2014, she pledged to invest US$3.7 billion over three years in the domestic startup ecosystem.