The objective of this agreement is to lower the structural barriers faced by Korean startups with technological competitiveness located in the Seoul Metropolitan Area and other regions as they enter the global market, including the US, and to provide staged support throughout the entire process, from attracting investment to growth and overseas expansion. The two companies plan to establish a cooperative system with shared roles to ensure that startups grown in Korea can secure practical competitiveness and growth in overseas markets.
ST Builder is a company builder and investment/consulting firm that supports the entire life cycle of a company, from early-stage founding to growth, investment attraction, and Exit. It provides management consulting, R&D strategy, investment and M&A, accelerator (AC) business, and Exit consulting. Through this agreement, it will fully commence the design of business structures and the advancement of growth strategies with a focus on the global market. Specifically, the company explained that by collaborating with a proven partner in the global startup ecosystem, which is dozens of times larger than the domestic market, it aims to strengthen a corporate fostering model that incorporates global expansion potential from the initial stages.
Numen Ventures is a venture studio and investment firm tracing its origins back to 'Thinktomi,' an accelerator established in Silicon Valley in 2014. It has collaborated with organizations such as KOTRA Silicon Valley Program (under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy), Korea Innovation Center (KIC Silicon Valley, under the Ministry of Science and ICT), and various other government organizations including KAIST Software Education Center to operate numerous startup and acceleration programs. It is an action-oriented startup investment institution that has supported the US market entry of startups from Korea, and other countries based on its local Silicon Valley network.
According to the agreement, Numen Ventures will be responsible for US market analysis, global business strategy formulation, local entity establishment consulting, linking with investor networks, and securing follow-on investment. ST Builder will play the role of increasing the completeness of the pre-global expansion phase by reviewing and refining the business model, organization, and financial structure in the domestic stage, and verifying growth potential. The two companies plan to build a continuous support structure through this, enabling domestically grown startups to naturally expand into overseas markets.
Jiwoon Lee, CEO of ST Builder, said, "A startup's global expansion is not merely an overseas advance, but a process of verifying whether the business competitiveness accumulated domestically can be successful in the global market. Through this agreement, we have expanded our company building model—which considers the global market and exit possibilities from the early stage—to Silicon Valley." He added, "We will focus on creating substantial global results by directly utilizing the local network and investment environment."
Manoj Fernando, Managing Partner of Numen Ventures, stated, "Korean startups possess very high competitiveness in terms of technology and innovation. By cooperating with ST Builder, we will discover startups based on Korea's innovation ecosystem and provide more strategic entry and scale-up opportunities in the US market." He further noted, "Based on the Silicon Valley startup experience and investment network accumulated over the past 25 years, we will actively support not only investment but assist with marketing, business development and sales."
The two companies plan to jointly operate programs for domestic startups preparing for entry into the U.S. market. The programs will provide structured, stage-based support for global expansion through hands-on IR pitch deck training and practical workshops, including acceleration, marketing, and sales, with a focus on B2B, B2G, and B2C clients and building global sales organizations.
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