The Chung-Ang University Campus Town Promotion Board was organized in 2018 with the goal of boosting youth entrepreneurship and promoting win-win growth between the university and the local community. It has now been operating the Campus Town Project for seven years. For four years from 2019 to 2022, it successfully carried out the second phase of the overall project with support from Seoul City. Based on those achievements, the board was selected again for the fifth phase of the startup program, and it is continuously pursuing various projects to foster young startup companies and revitalize the local community.
Woongkyoo BAE, head of the Chung-Ang University Campus Town Promotion Board, said, “The Campus Town Promotion Board is working closely with various major players, including Seoul City, autonomous districts, local communities, related organizations, and other universities, to create a sustainable startup ecosystem where young people can challenge themselves and grow through entrepreneurship,” and added, “Furthermore, we are doing our best to play the important role of a bridge connecting the university with the local community.” We met with Mr. Bae at Chung-Ang University in Dongjak-gu, Seoul.
Woongkyoo BAE
Professor Woongkyoo BAE (Head of Chung-Ang University Campus Town Promotion Board)
Head of Chung-Ang University Campus Town Promotion Board (2018–Present)
Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Studies (Civil Engineering), Chung-Ang University (2003–Present)
Member of the Cultural Heritage Committee, Korea Heritage Service (2024–Present)
Member of the Performance Management ans Self-Evaluation Committee, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (2022–Present)
Member of the Namsan Development Committee, Seoul Metropolitan City (2024–Present)
Public Housing District UCP/MP, Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) (2023-Present)
GSAPP Post-Doc., Columbia University, U.S.A. (2006–2007)
How would you evaluate the results so far?
“By operating the Campus Town Project for the past seven years, Chung-Ang University has built much-needed startup support infrastructure within the university and the local community and enhanced its startup support system. As a result, we have produced numerous outstanding startups and contributed to the growth of an entrepreneurial culture within the university. In particular, by continuously participating in the Seoul Campus Town Project from its initial stages, we have accumulated extensive experience and know-how in project management and ensured the stability and scalability of the project.
Based on these achievements, Chung-Ang University has presented its vision of becoming the ‘hub of the southwestern Seoul startup valley.’ To realize this, we have strengthened cooperation with various major players in the southwestern region, including autonomous districts, industries, and universities (or government-industry-academia). In the process, we have promoted initiatives such as the ‘Symposium on Innovation in Campus Towns South of the Han River,’ ‘government-industry-academia business agreements for revitalizing youth startups in the southwestern region,’ and the ‘Southwestern Region Campus Town Integrated IR Day.’ In particular, the ‘Southwestern Seoul Government-Industry-Academia Cooperation Agreement,’ led by Chung-Ang University and joined by 14 organizations from government, industry, and academia, represents the first multilateral collaboration model for youth entrepreneurship in southwestern Seoul. This is highly significant because it involves major innovators in the southwestern region promoting youth entrepreneurship by collaborating to establish a comprehensive support system that covers the entire startup lifecycle. Based on the agreement, outstanding companies fostered in the Chung-Ang University Campus Town are expanding into startup support facilities in southwestern Seoul, such as the Seoul Business Agency and Geumcheon-gu Office, and continuing to grow within the regional startup ecosystem. Located at the heart of the southwestern Seoul startup valley, Chung-Ang University will continue to lead the way in promoting youth entrepreneurship and fostering shared growth between the university and the local community.”
What are the biggest challenges facing this year’s project?
“AI has made a big splash in all sectors of society this year. The Chung-Ang University Campus Town has aligned itself with this trend as well by setting AI as the main keyword for the project. So we aimed to focus on discovering and nurturing startups based on AI technology, and as a result, the field now accounts for about half of all tenant companies. Furthermore, we ran an AI competency enhancement program with different steps tailored to the AI skill levels and needs of the general public, tenant companies, and AI-based tenant companies. Our goal was to strengthen the AI capabilities of startups and the general public, and to lay a foundation for boost entrepreneurship in the AI field. Furthermore, in conjunction with the university’s AI graduate school, we provided AI-based basic entrepreneurship education to support talents with excellent AI capabilities in acquiring entrepreneurial skills and embarking on the challenge of starting their own businesses. With AI driving innovation across all industries, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town plans to operate various programs to boost AI-based startups, including programs on nurturing entrepreneurial AI talents and supporting the growth and advancement of AI startups.”
What are the strengths of the Chung-Ang University Campus Town Project Board?
“The goal of the Campus Town Project is to boost youth entrepreneurship and foster win-win growth between universities and the local community. To achieve this, it’s important to collaborate and network with universities, the local community, and various external organizations. In particular, nurturing startups into sustainable growth companies requires multifaceted support for technology, funding, sales channels, talent, and so on. When relying on their internal resources and capabilities alone, startup support organizations face limitations in providing comprehensive support for startups. Accordingly, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town Promotion Board has been working to establish a collaborative system with the local community and related organizations from the initial stage of the project. As a result, we’ve been able to provide the specialized and comprehensive support that startups need to grow. Furthermore, based on government-industry-academia collaboration, we are expanding the startup infrastructure within the region and operating various collaborative programs. In collaboration with Dongjak-gu, we established the ‘Dongjak Startup Center,’ and with Seoul Metro Line9, we have created startup support facilities such as the ‘Youth Entrepreneurship Studio’ at Dongjak Station and the ‘Youth Entrepreneurship Cultural Space’ at Heukseok Station. In addition, we have signed business agreements with 13 governmental, industrial, and academic organizations in the southwestern region, and are operating various joint programs to support the growth of startups. Our ability to collaborate and network organically with external organizations is a key driving force that will enable the Chung-Ang University Campus Town to realize its vision of becoming the ‘hub of the southwestern Seoul startup valley.’ By continuing to collaborate with the local community and related organizations, we expect that the Chung-Ang University Campus Town will contribute to the construction of a sustainable startup ecosystem.”
How are tenant companies selected?
“The Chung-Ang University Campus Town selects pre-startup and early-stage entrepreneurs through a startup competition evaluated by experts in the field of entrepreneurship. When selecting tenant companies, the focus is on evaluating the excellence of the business idea and the capability of executing the business plan. To be specific, for the excellence of the business idea, the evaluation assesses its originality and differentiation and the feasibility of commercialization, while in terms of overall business execution capabilities, it looks at the founder’s competence and commitment to realizing the idea.”
What are some examples of startup fostering programs?
“The Chung-Ang University Campus Town operates various entrepreneurship programs targeting people interested in starting a business, pre-startup entrepreneurs, and early-stage entrepreneurs. Among them, I’d like to introduce the regular entrepreneurship curriculum, which aims to boost on-campus entrepreneurship and cultivate entrepreneurial talents. Recently, promoting entrepreneurship within the university has been emphasized as one of the core objectives of the Campus Town Project. To this end, Campus Town universities are encouraged to operate a regular curriculum related to entrepreneurship. Since the beginning, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town has emphasized promoting entrepreneurship within the university. For this reason, it has offered a regular course for undergraduate students called ‘Youth Entrepreneurship for Solving Local Problems’ since 2022. This course has a practical, hands-on curriculum that goes beyond simple entrepreneurial theory by allowing students to actually experience the initial stages of starting a business. Students select a startup idea and form a team, and then over the course of a semester, they experience all the pre-startup activities, including writing a startup proposal and business plan, and creating and presenting IR materials. The instructors include experts in entrepreneurial practices and representatives of Campus Town tenant companies, and the special lectures where the tenant company representatives share their vivid startup experiences and communicate directly with students have received a particularly strong response. As such, this course has been designed with a practical focus for its curriculum and instructors, and as a result, unlike existing entrepreneurship courses that remain theory-oriented, it has produced students who actually take the leap to put together an entrepreneurial team and start a business.”
What are some notable success stories among the supported or tenant startups?
“Many companies coming out of the Chung-Ang University Campus Town Program are gaining market recognition for their technological capabilities and business potential, and showing steady growth. Several companies have made significant achievements, such as winning a CES Innovation Award or successfully entering the global market. ‘Meta Texture’ is a prime example of an outstanding startup from the Chung-Ang University Campus Town, particularly in the food tech field. Metatexture was founded in 2022 by students from the Department of Food Science and Technology at Chung-Ang University. It developed ‘SWEETEGG,’ the first plant-based egg substitute in Korea. SWEETEGG replicates the texture of a real egg with over 90% accuracy, and is also cholesterol- and allergen-free, and low in calories. Because of this, it has been recognized for its high marketability and competitiveness. The company is also developing a variety of plant-based egg products and expanding into both the B2C and B2B sectors. Based on these achievements, Metatexture has achieved excellent results in numerous startup competitions, including the ‘2023 Korea-Africa Startup Competition,’ the ‘Korea-Arab Startup Pitch Competition,’ and the ‘2024 WBAF World Congress.’ The ‘2024 WBAF World Congress’ was organized by the WBAF, a global network of angel investors under the G20, and the company placed in the top three, which will allow it to secure up to 3 million euros in investment from the WBAF Global Fund. Metatexture started as a university startup team and is growing rapidly by improving its technology and attracting investment. With the global spread of ethical consumption trends such as veganism and animal welfare, the alternative protein market is experiencing rapid growth. For this reason, Metatexture is expected to grow into a leading global food tech company representing South Korea.”
What investment and market development programs are available for startups?
“The Chung-Ang University Campus Town operates various programs to help companies in their growth stage attract investment and develop sales channels, including the Southwestern Seoul Integrated IR Day, Southwestern Seoul Joint Open Innovation, the Campus Town Demo Day, a pitch deck creation program, and related training and mentoring. In particular, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town is connected with the ‘Chung-Ang University Venture Capital Blue Dragon,’ which has provided some tenant companies with actual investments. This year, we have stepped up support by launching a new program focused specifically on attracting investment and developing sales channels in the food tech sector. Food tech is one of the fields that the Chung-Ang University Campus Town specializes in, and it is home to a number of excellent food tech startups. However, it’s a field with strong industry-specific characteristics, which makes general investment and distribution support insufficient on their own. Specialized support is essential for the growth of these companies. Accordingly, to support the effective scale-up of food tech companies, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town ran a specialized investment attraction and market development program for food tech companies with participation from tenant food tech companies, successful startup CEOs, and investment experts. The program included special lectures, talks, IR pitching days, and networking events focused on key challenges in the food tech field and strategies for attracting investment and developing sales channels. We expect that this kind of specialized investment attraction and market development program will help food tech startups in the Chung-Ang University Campus Town effectively address industry-specific challenges and successfully make a leap forward.”
What are your goals for the future?
“The Seoul Campus Town Project is linked with ‘RISE (Regional Innovation System & Education),’ which was launched this year, and a more advanced model will be employed in 2026.” This year, Chung-Ang University achieved the remarkable feat of being selected for both the RISE project and the Campus Town Project. Accordingly, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town Project will be closely linked to the core tasks of the university’s RISE project, which include ‘revitalizing the industry-academia collaboration ecosystem,’ ‘expanding the BIO cluster innovation ecosystem,’ and ‘cultivating talent for creative industries.’ This will allow the startup support programs to operate in a more systematic and strategic manner. Based on our experience and achievements in operating the Campus Town Project, we will further strengthen startup incubation in advanced industries such as AI and biotechnology through organic integration with the newly launched RISE project, thereby contributing to Seoul’s leap forward as a hub for youth and innovative startups.”
reporter jinho lee
jinho2323@hankyung.com
Woongkyoo BAE, head of the Chung-Ang University Campus Town Promotion Board, said, “The Campus Town Promotion Board is working closely with various major players, including Seoul City, autonomous districts, local communities, related organizations, and other universities, to create a sustainable startup ecosystem where young people can challenge themselves and grow through entrepreneurship,” and added, “Furthermore, we are doing our best to play the important role of a bridge connecting the university with the local community.” We met with Mr. Bae at Chung-Ang University in Dongjak-gu, Seoul.
Woongkyoo BAE
Professor Woongkyoo BAE (Head of Chung-Ang University Campus Town Promotion Board)
Head of Chung-Ang University Campus Town Promotion Board (2018–Present)
Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Studies (Civil Engineering), Chung-Ang University (2003–Present)
Member of the Cultural Heritage Committee, Korea Heritage Service (2024–Present)
Member of the Performance Management ans Self-Evaluation Committee, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (2022–Present)
Member of the Namsan Development Committee, Seoul Metropolitan City (2024–Present)
Public Housing District UCP/MP, Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) (2023-Present)
GSAPP Post-Doc., Columbia University, U.S.A. (2006–2007)
How would you evaluate the results so far?
“By operating the Campus Town Project for the past seven years, Chung-Ang University has built much-needed startup support infrastructure within the university and the local community and enhanced its startup support system. As a result, we have produced numerous outstanding startups and contributed to the growth of an entrepreneurial culture within the university. In particular, by continuously participating in the Seoul Campus Town Project from its initial stages, we have accumulated extensive experience and know-how in project management and ensured the stability and scalability of the project.
Based on these achievements, Chung-Ang University has presented its vision of becoming the ‘hub of the southwestern Seoul startup valley.’ To realize this, we have strengthened cooperation with various major players in the southwestern region, including autonomous districts, industries, and universities (or government-industry-academia). In the process, we have promoted initiatives such as the ‘Symposium on Innovation in Campus Towns South of the Han River,’ ‘government-industry-academia business agreements for revitalizing youth startups in the southwestern region,’ and the ‘Southwestern Region Campus Town Integrated IR Day.’ In particular, the ‘Southwestern Seoul Government-Industry-Academia Cooperation Agreement,’ led by Chung-Ang University and joined by 14 organizations from government, industry, and academia, represents the first multilateral collaboration model for youth entrepreneurship in southwestern Seoul. This is highly significant because it involves major innovators in the southwestern region promoting youth entrepreneurship by collaborating to establish a comprehensive support system that covers the entire startup lifecycle. Based on the agreement, outstanding companies fostered in the Chung-Ang University Campus Town are expanding into startup support facilities in southwestern Seoul, such as the Seoul Business Agency and Geumcheon-gu Office, and continuing to grow within the regional startup ecosystem. Located at the heart of the southwestern Seoul startup valley, Chung-Ang University will continue to lead the way in promoting youth entrepreneurship and fostering shared growth between the university and the local community.”
What are the biggest challenges facing this year’s project?
“AI has made a big splash in all sectors of society this year. The Chung-Ang University Campus Town has aligned itself with this trend as well by setting AI as the main keyword for the project. So we aimed to focus on discovering and nurturing startups based on AI technology, and as a result, the field now accounts for about half of all tenant companies. Furthermore, we ran an AI competency enhancement program with different steps tailored to the AI skill levels and needs of the general public, tenant companies, and AI-based tenant companies. Our goal was to strengthen the AI capabilities of startups and the general public, and to lay a foundation for boost entrepreneurship in the AI field. Furthermore, in conjunction with the university’s AI graduate school, we provided AI-based basic entrepreneurship education to support talents with excellent AI capabilities in acquiring entrepreneurial skills and embarking on the challenge of starting their own businesses. With AI driving innovation across all industries, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town plans to operate various programs to boost AI-based startups, including programs on nurturing entrepreneurial AI talents and supporting the growth and advancement of AI startups.”
What are the strengths of the Chung-Ang University Campus Town Project Board?
“The goal of the Campus Town Project is to boost youth entrepreneurship and foster win-win growth between universities and the local community. To achieve this, it’s important to collaborate and network with universities, the local community, and various external organizations. In particular, nurturing startups into sustainable growth companies requires multifaceted support for technology, funding, sales channels, talent, and so on. When relying on their internal resources and capabilities alone, startup support organizations face limitations in providing comprehensive support for startups. Accordingly, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town Promotion Board has been working to establish a collaborative system with the local community and related organizations from the initial stage of the project. As a result, we’ve been able to provide the specialized and comprehensive support that startups need to grow. Furthermore, based on government-industry-academia collaboration, we are expanding the startup infrastructure within the region and operating various collaborative programs. In collaboration with Dongjak-gu, we established the ‘Dongjak Startup Center,’ and with Seoul Metro Line9, we have created startup support facilities such as the ‘Youth Entrepreneurship Studio’ at Dongjak Station and the ‘Youth Entrepreneurship Cultural Space’ at Heukseok Station. In addition, we have signed business agreements with 13 governmental, industrial, and academic organizations in the southwestern region, and are operating various joint programs to support the growth of startups. Our ability to collaborate and network organically with external organizations is a key driving force that will enable the Chung-Ang University Campus Town to realize its vision of becoming the ‘hub of the southwestern Seoul startup valley.’ By continuing to collaborate with the local community and related organizations, we expect that the Chung-Ang University Campus Town will contribute to the construction of a sustainable startup ecosystem.”
How are tenant companies selected?
“The Chung-Ang University Campus Town selects pre-startup and early-stage entrepreneurs through a startup competition evaluated by experts in the field of entrepreneurship. When selecting tenant companies, the focus is on evaluating the excellence of the business idea and the capability of executing the business plan. To be specific, for the excellence of the business idea, the evaluation assesses its originality and differentiation and the feasibility of commercialization, while in terms of overall business execution capabilities, it looks at the founder’s competence and commitment to realizing the idea.”
What are some examples of startup fostering programs?
“The Chung-Ang University Campus Town operates various entrepreneurship programs targeting people interested in starting a business, pre-startup entrepreneurs, and early-stage entrepreneurs. Among them, I’d like to introduce the regular entrepreneurship curriculum, which aims to boost on-campus entrepreneurship and cultivate entrepreneurial talents. Recently, promoting entrepreneurship within the university has been emphasized as one of the core objectives of the Campus Town Project. To this end, Campus Town universities are encouraged to operate a regular curriculum related to entrepreneurship. Since the beginning, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town has emphasized promoting entrepreneurship within the university. For this reason, it has offered a regular course for undergraduate students called ‘Youth Entrepreneurship for Solving Local Problems’ since 2022. This course has a practical, hands-on curriculum that goes beyond simple entrepreneurial theory by allowing students to actually experience the initial stages of starting a business. Students select a startup idea and form a team, and then over the course of a semester, they experience all the pre-startup activities, including writing a startup proposal and business plan, and creating and presenting IR materials. The instructors include experts in entrepreneurial practices and representatives of Campus Town tenant companies, and the special lectures where the tenant company representatives share their vivid startup experiences and communicate directly with students have received a particularly strong response. As such, this course has been designed with a practical focus for its curriculum and instructors, and as a result, unlike existing entrepreneurship courses that remain theory-oriented, it has produced students who actually take the leap to put together an entrepreneurial team and start a business.”
What are some notable success stories among the supported or tenant startups?
“Many companies coming out of the Chung-Ang University Campus Town Program are gaining market recognition for their technological capabilities and business potential, and showing steady growth. Several companies have made significant achievements, such as winning a CES Innovation Award or successfully entering the global market. ‘Meta Texture’ is a prime example of an outstanding startup from the Chung-Ang University Campus Town, particularly in the food tech field. Metatexture was founded in 2022 by students from the Department of Food Science and Technology at Chung-Ang University. It developed ‘SWEETEGG,’ the first plant-based egg substitute in Korea. SWEETEGG replicates the texture of a real egg with over 90% accuracy, and is also cholesterol- and allergen-free, and low in calories. Because of this, it has been recognized for its high marketability and competitiveness. The company is also developing a variety of plant-based egg products and expanding into both the B2C and B2B sectors. Based on these achievements, Metatexture has achieved excellent results in numerous startup competitions, including the ‘2023 Korea-Africa Startup Competition,’ the ‘Korea-Arab Startup Pitch Competition,’ and the ‘2024 WBAF World Congress.’ The ‘2024 WBAF World Congress’ was organized by the WBAF, a global network of angel investors under the G20, and the company placed in the top three, which will allow it to secure up to 3 million euros in investment from the WBAF Global Fund. Metatexture started as a university startup team and is growing rapidly by improving its technology and attracting investment. With the global spread of ethical consumption trends such as veganism and animal welfare, the alternative protein market is experiencing rapid growth. For this reason, Metatexture is expected to grow into a leading global food tech company representing South Korea.”
What investment and market development programs are available for startups?
“The Chung-Ang University Campus Town operates various programs to help companies in their growth stage attract investment and develop sales channels, including the Southwestern Seoul Integrated IR Day, Southwestern Seoul Joint Open Innovation, the Campus Town Demo Day, a pitch deck creation program, and related training and mentoring. In particular, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town is connected with the ‘Chung-Ang University Venture Capital Blue Dragon,’ which has provided some tenant companies with actual investments. This year, we have stepped up support by launching a new program focused specifically on attracting investment and developing sales channels in the food tech sector. Food tech is one of the fields that the Chung-Ang University Campus Town specializes in, and it is home to a number of excellent food tech startups. However, it’s a field with strong industry-specific characteristics, which makes general investment and distribution support insufficient on their own. Specialized support is essential for the growth of these companies. Accordingly, to support the effective scale-up of food tech companies, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town ran a specialized investment attraction and market development program for food tech companies with participation from tenant food tech companies, successful startup CEOs, and investment experts. The program included special lectures, talks, IR pitching days, and networking events focused on key challenges in the food tech field and strategies for attracting investment and developing sales channels. We expect that this kind of specialized investment attraction and market development program will help food tech startups in the Chung-Ang University Campus Town effectively address industry-specific challenges and successfully make a leap forward.”
What are your goals for the future?
“The Seoul Campus Town Project is linked with ‘RISE (Regional Innovation System & Education),’ which was launched this year, and a more advanced model will be employed in 2026.” This year, Chung-Ang University achieved the remarkable feat of being selected for both the RISE project and the Campus Town Project. Accordingly, the Chung-Ang University Campus Town Project will be closely linked to the core tasks of the university’s RISE project, which include ‘revitalizing the industry-academia collaboration ecosystem,’ ‘expanding the BIO cluster innovation ecosystem,’ and ‘cultivating talent for creative industries.’ This will allow the startup support programs to operate in a more systematic and strategic manner. Based on our experience and achievements in operating the Campus Town Project, we will further strengthen startup incubation in advanced industries such as AI and biotechnology through organic integration with the newly launched RISE project, thereby contributing to Seoul’s leap forward as a hub for youth and innovative startups.”
reporter jinho lee
jinho2323@hankyung.com
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