South Korea now ranks among the many world’s least failure-averse societies in entrepreneurship. One in 4 adults plans to start out a enterprise inside three years, and worry of failure sits on the lowest stage amongst 53 international locations surveyed. But contemporary knowledge on re-start companies tells a extra difficult story. Cultural confidence is rising. Capital continuity stays fragile.
Korea’s 2025 GEM Outcomes: Excessive Entrepreneurial Intent, Low Worry of Failure
On February 27, the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Growth (KISED) introduced the outcomes of the 2025 International Entrepreneurship Monitor survey. The research, carried out throughout 53 international locations, evaluates nationwide entrepreneurship circumstances and public attitudes.
Korea recorded a Nationwide Entrepreneurship Context Index rating of 5.9 out of 10, rating eighth globally. The rating exceeds the collaborating nation common of 4.8. Nonetheless, the rating fell two positions in comparison with the earlier yr.
Within the grownup inhabitants survey, 24.6 % of respondents mentioned they plan to start out a enterprise inside three years. This marks a 1.9 proportion level enhance yr on yr.
Most notably, solely 27.0 % of people who understand startup alternatives mentioned worry of failure would deter them from launching a enterprise. That is the lowest determine amongst all collaborating international locations.
Digital adoption amongst early-stage entrepreneurs additionally surged. 63.8 % reported utilizing digital applied sciences to promote items or providers, a pointy enhance in comparison with the earlier yr.
On the floor, Korea seems to be normalizing entrepreneurial threat at a societal stage.
Re-Entry Actuality: Survival With out Scale
But separate reporting on re-start corporations paints a distinct image.
An evaluation of 728 companies that acquired authorities re-launch assist funding in 2020 discovered that, as of January 2026, 213 had already closed once more. Amongst surviving companies, 347 make use of two or fewer individuals. Taken collectively, almost 77 % of supported companies both shut down or function successfully as one-person companies.
Common employment amongst 977 working companies that acquired re-launch assist between 2020 and 2021 stands at solely three to 4 employees.
Annual company chapter filings reached 2,282 in 2025, with 1,321 company rehabilitation functions. Nonetheless, guarantee-based re-start assist applications cowl solely a small fraction of these circumstances.
The Korea Credit score Assure Fund supported 13 re-start companies in 2021. However in 2025, that quantity fell to 4.
Even inside government-backed enterprise capital, re-start founders characterize a small share. Of 535 investments made by the Mom Fund beneath re-start-related applications, solely 37 went to companies that had participated in formal re-start assist schemes.
Cultural acceptance has improved. However capital transmission stays constrained.
Ministerial Place: Re-Problem Headquarters Strikes into Execution Section
In the meantime, on the February 26 assembly of the 2026 Re-Problem Help Headquarters Steering Committee, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) detailed this yr’s implementation plan beneath the re-challenge framework launched in December and beforehand outlined on the January Nationwide Startup Period technique assembly.
The federal government confirmed plans to kind a KRW 200 billion re-challenge fund. It’ll additionally deploy KRW 115 billion by means of the Re-Problem Success Bundle and re-start mortgage applications to assist roughly 750 corporations. An extra KRW 5 billion has been allotted completely for companies that obtain court-approved rehabilitation this yr.
Alongside financing measures, the ministry will develop applications designed to shift public notion and enhance entry to data. These embody “Failure Concert events,” a regional-to-national Re-Problem IR League, group applications for entrepreneurs who’ve closed and restarted companies, and the improve of the prevailing re-challenge assist web site right into a devoted platform providing case research and closure steerage.
Minister Han Seong-sook said,
“The Re-Problem Help Headquarters will report failure not merely as expertise however as entrepreneurial achievement, accumulating it as knowledge that turns into an asset for future success.
We’ll strengthen personalized, stage-based assist in order that entrepreneurs making ready for re-challenge can try once more, whereas persevering with efforts to enhance social perceptions of failure.”
The coverage emphasis is obvious. The state is making an attempt to institutionalize second makes an attempt. The framework launched earlier this yr is now coming into energetic deployment
Korea’s Entrepreneurship Restart: Cultural Shift With out Capital Fluidity
The 2025 GEM outcomes verify that Korea has made measurable progress in social notion. Worry of failure is now not the dominant psychological barrier.
Nonetheless, re-entry capital entry stays structurally tight.
Assure applications stay restricted in scale relative to chapter quantity. Funding allocation into re-start founders stays modest. The typical agency measurement amongst re-start beneficiaries stays small.
This means a mismatch between cultural reform and monetary intermediation.
Globally, mature enterprise ecosystems usually differentiate between social stigma and capital threat pricing. The US, for instance, has normalized repeat entrepreneurship inside enterprise capital circles, even when credit score markets stay conservative. Israel’s ecosystem equally tolerates excessive failure charges in expertise startups.
Korea seems to be transferring culturally towards these fashions. But credit score analysis practices, assure thresholds, and public-to-private capital handoffs proceed to behave as filters.
The friction just isn’t psychological. It’s structural.
This distinction carries weight when assessing Korea’s place as a enterprise capital hub throughout the Asia-Pacific startup ecosystem. A society that more and more tolerates failure can generate a bigger pool of first-time founders. But if capital suppliers stay cautious in backing repeat entrepreneurs, the cycle of reinvestment and cumulative innovation slows.
The implications additionally lengthen past Korea with clear classes for rising ecosystems watching the transition: the altering cultural notion that normalizes failure doesn’t robotically unlock liquidity on the level of re-entry.
What finally shapes outcomes are assure methods, credit score analysis practices, and the continuity between public funding and personal funding. These mechanisms determine whether or not failure turns into a part of an iterative progress course of or a closing exit from the market.
Testing the KRW 200 Billion Re-Problem Fund
The newly introduced KRW 200 billion re-challenge fund is positioned as a important monetary instrument inside Korea’s second-attempt ecosystem. Its actual influence, nonetheless, will hinge on how it’s deployed, how a lot personal capital it may appeal to alongside public cash, and whether or not re-start companies acquire entry to sustained follow-on funding.
If the fund features as catalytic capital that encourages enterprise traders to take part, re-entry limitations may regularly ease. Capital would start to flow into reasonably than stall on the first rehabilitation stage.
But if the automobile operates in isolation, disconnected from assure applications and personal financing channels, structural scale limits are more likely to stay. Public funding alone can not resolve systemic bottlenecks.
The indications to observe are clear: five-year survival charges, employment progress inside re-start companies, and the share of enterprise funding directed towards repeat founders.
Social worry has receded. The decisive query now considerations capital continuity.
Key Takeaways on Korea’s Entrepreneurship Restart and Re-Problem Program 2026
- Korea ranks eighth within the 2025 International Entrepreneurship Monitor with a NECI rating of 5.9, above the worldwide common.
- Solely 27.0% of Koreans cite worry of failure as a barrier, the bottom charge amongst 53 surveyed international locations.
- 24.6% of adults plan to start out a enterprise inside three years.
- Amongst 728 companies receiving 2020 re-launch funding, 213 closed once more; almost 77% both shut down or stay micro-sized.
- Annual company bankruptcies exceed 2,200 circumstances, but guarantee-based re-start assist stays restricted.
- The federal government plans a KRW 200 billion re-challenge fund and KRW 115 billion in re-start financing for 2026.
- The structural problem lies not in social stigma, however in credit score ensures, capital continuity, and enterprise allocation to repeat founders.
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