COMEUP 2026 Startup Festival to Open in Seoul This December

Seoul, South Korea -The Korea Startup Forum announced Tuesday that COMEUP 2026, an international startup festival, will take place Dec. 9–11 at the COEX convention center in Gangnam District, Seoul.

The organizing committee held its initial planning meeting on June 2 at Maru180 in Seoul to establish its operational roadmap for the event. 

The Ministry of Startups and SMEs hosts the annual event, which is jointly organized by the Korea Startup Forum, the Venture Enterprise Association, and the Korean Venture Capital Association. 

The event serves as a networking and investment matching platform for domestic and international startup ecosystems.

The newly formed advisory committee comprises 54 members, with Jae-won Kim, chairman of the Korea Startup Forum, serving as its chair. Members include heads of industry associations, representatives from global corporations, and startup executives, organized into six subcommittees: Global, Entrepreneurship, Deep Tech, Investment, Public Relations/Media, and Open Innovation.

According to data provided by the organizers, COMEUP 2025 drew participants from 46 countries and featured 275 startups, the highest number of participating nations in the event's history. 

The 2025 event recorded 3,447 investment and business matching sessions involving entrepreneurs, investors, corporations, and government agencies.

For the 2026 event, organizers plan to emphasize international expansion, youth entrepreneurship, and deep tech sectors. 

The COMEUP Stars program, which assists domestic firms in entering overseas markets, will expand from four regions in 2025 — the United States, Europe, China, and Japan — to six in 2026, adding Singapore and India.

Organizers will also expand Future Founder, a student entrepreneurship program introduced last year, to support early-stage business development amid artificial intelligence-driven industry restructuring.