Yonsei Team Takes Second Place

at University Startup World Cup

 

-First Korean Students to Be Awarded

 

 

Yonsei’s Nara Space finished second at “the University Startup World Cup” Competition in Copenhagen, Denmark. Nara Space competed against university teams from thirty different countries, including the U.S.’s Stanford University and Columbia University, China’s Tsinghua University, and Japan’s Waseda University. This was the first time for a Korean team to receive an award in the competition.

 

Simply making it to the final round of the University Startup World Cup is quite an achievement, as the fifty-three teams that competed in Copenhagen were chosen from a pool of nearly 2,500 university teams. South Korea was also represented in the finals by a team from Pohang University of Science and Technology.

 

 

The jury for the competition consisted of representatives from Microsoft, Deutsche Bank, Innovation Center Denmark, and several law firms, along with investors located in northern Europe. The teams were evaluated not only on the basis of their official presentation and the question and answer session, but also on the business and networking skills they demonstrated throughout the five-day competition.

 

Nara Space is a space technology start-up with twelve members, led by Astronomy graduate student Jae-pil Park and Business student Won-seok Jung. Of the team’s achievement, Jung said: “We were able to prove the worth of our start-up idea at a global competition and acquire know-how in terms of pitching it to foreign investors.” He also explained: “Given the nature of the technology business, I believe that blending the unanimous agreement of the technical staff and the management’s public relations is important. In order to demonstrate our technical skills, commercial viability, and future potential and convey this to a global audience, it was necessary to have a clear concept we all agreed upon and be aware of the technical aspects that need to be further developed.” Jung believes that the team was awarded due to its “sales capacity and communication skills, which were evinced during the informal parties and networking events. I believe we were given points for putting a strong effort into networking after the presentation.”

 

Because of its second-place finish, Nara Space was given an investment agreement with HippoCorn (an early investor in Skype) and the right to use start-up networks in Denmark and elsewhere in the region. Going forward, Nara Space will seek to increase its brand recognition and raise funds from investors to expand their space technology ventures.