COMEUP: dates, who attends, and how founders get in
“COMEUP is where unseen innovation, unseen connections that shape new markets, and the unseen potential of visionary founders are brought onto the global stage.”
- Next edition
- Dec 9–11, 2026 · COMEUP 2026 source
- Where
- COEX Hall B (COMEUP 2025); COEX 3F C Hall (COMEUP 2026)., Seoul, South Korea source
- Format
- hybrid · 3 days (2025; 2026 announced).
- Tickets
- Free general-attendee pre-registration (COMEUP 2026). A startup exhibition booth is separate from an attendee ticket: 3,150,000원–3,500,000원, VAT excluded (COMEUP 2026). source
- Startup pass
- COMEUP 2026 booth: 3,500,000원 (VAT 별도); early bird 3,150,000원 (VAT 별도). No separate COMEUP Stars application fee was stated on the programme page. source
- Cadence
- Annual since launch in 2019; November editions in 2020–2023, then December in 2024–2026 (2026 announced).
GeneralistAIDeeptechClimatePre-seedSeedSeries AGrowthPublicFoundersInvestorsCorporatesPolicy & governmentStudents
Next edition
| Dates | Dec 9–11, 2026 source |
|---|---|
| Edition | COMEUP 2026 |
| Venue | COEX 3F C Hall, Seoul, South Korea source |
| Theme | Unleash the Unseen |
| Tickets | comeup.org source |
Ticket tiers as published
| Tier | Price | Includes | Edition |
|---|---|---|---|
| General attendee pre-registration source | No payment required | General attendee pre-registration, entry QR code by email and fast-track badge pickup; the organiser also says special events are exclusive to pre-registered attendees. | COMEUP 2026 |
How founders get in
COMEUP 2025 combined exhibitions, conferences, IR pitching and open innovation around Deep Tech, Global and Entrepreneurship. The organiser highlighted pre-arranged and open 1:1 meetings, investor booths and venture-investment briefings, alongside public-facing tours and startup showcases.
- For general attendance at COMEUP 2026, sign in and complete the official pre-registration; the organiser says an entry QR code will be emailed. Pre-registration closes 2026-12-04 at 18:00; official COMEUP social material says pre-registration requires no payment.
- For the selected-startup route, apply online to COMEUP Stars. It is a global-expansion programme for promising startups targeting markets including the U.S., Europe, Japan, China, Singapore and India. The 2026 application period ended 2026-07-16; selected companies receive support such as main-event pitching and exhibition opportunities, mentoring and business matching.
- For a startup exhibition booth at COMEUP 2026, submit the application form linked from the organiser’s notice. The published recruitment period ended 2026-09-30; the notice listed a standard price of 3,500,000원, VAT excluded. Its earlier 3,150,000원 early-bird price ended 2026-08-31.
| Startup price | COMEUP 2026 booth: 3,500,000원 (VAT 별도); early bird 3,150,000원 (VAT 별도). No separate COMEUP Stars application fee was stated on the programme page. source |
|---|---|
| Includes | The booth is for promoting a startup’s products or services and connecting with investors, companies and partners. COMEUP Stars benefits include main-event pitching and exhibition opportunities, mentoring, global business matching, branding and media exposure, investment connections, and follow-on overseas-programme linkage for 2027. |
| Eligibility | Booth: startups with innovative products or services that want to present them to attendees and connect with investors, companies or partners. COMEUP Stars: promising startups aiming to expand globally; the programme page names the U.S., Europe, Japan, China, Singapore and India. No funding-stage or company-age threshold was stated in the cited pages. |
| Founder discounts | COMEUP 2026 exhibitors could use the early-bird booth price of 3,150,000원 (VAT 별도), instead of the standard 3,500,000원 (VAT 별도); the early-bird period ended 2026-08-31. No separate founder ticket discount was published. |
| Investor pass | Use general attendee pre-registration for entry. For investor-startup meetings, the official Business Matching portal provides separate investor registration. source |
| Application required | No, tickets are purchased |
COMEUP Stars
| Format | COMEUP 2025 included the COMEUP Stars Final Pitch. The 2026 COMEUP Stars programme selected startups for global expansion; the cited official pages do not publish a detailed pitch-round format. |
|---|---|
| Eligibility | COMEUP Stars is for promising startups seeking global-market expansion; the programme page identifies the U.S., Europe, Japan, China, Singapore and India. No funding-stage or company-age criteria were published on the cited page. |
Meeting investors there
COMEUP 2025 described pre-arranged and open 1:1 meetings as ways to connect startups with investors; investor booths and venture-investment briefings complemented the meetings. For corporate collaboration, the 2026 OI Ground programme says startups are matched in advance against participating companies’ stated interests and meet on site. source
| Matchmaking | COMEUP Business Matching portal; the portal has separate startup and investor registration options. source |
|---|---|
| Formats | COMEUP 2025: pre-arranged and open 1:1 investor meetings, investor booths, and sessions linked to venture-investment briefings. · COMEUP 2025: startups could also meet companies at corporate booths without prior matching. · COMEUP 2026 programme page: OI Ground describes advance-matched 1:1 meetings with Korean and global corporates, plus a separate global-expansion meetup track with INKE. |
| Meetings arranged | 3,447 investment and business matchmaking meetings total, via online platform, pre-arranged 1:1 meetings and on-site investor booths (2025) source |
| Demo day | Yes |
Investor firms the organiser lists (2025 completed edition (2025-12-10 to 2025-12-12) for published outcomes; next announced edition: 2026-12-09 to 2026-12-11 at COEX, Seoul.)
PEN VenturesStart2 GroupELAND CHINA EIVSHINHAN BANK JAPANWhite Star CapitalAppWorksTenityRakuten CapitalBECO CapitalDepth Map VenturesHeadlineAsiaVnesto CapitalOutpost CapitalPortageFortitude VenturesAlpha Intelligence Capital FundMurex PartnersSonghyun InvestmentPlinto PartnersPacemakers Corp.SEMA InvestmentGlobal BrainHana SecuritiesThe Invention LabHLB InvestmentBLUEOCEAN VENTURESMinetta Brook VenturesQuantum Ventures Korea Inc.MIRAE Holding Company500 GlobalKorea Investment AcceleratorGoodthings인터밸류파트너스Star VenturesNXVPBNB Asset ManagementL&S Venture CapitalFuturePlayAscendo VenturesLegend CapitalBig Basin CapitalBluewhaleinvestPlatinum InvestmentKAIC TO VENTURESHoneypot VenturesSimsan VenturesHighlight Capital541 VenturesSchmidtGS VenturesOrbit VenturesKorea Social Investment FoundationPennant InvestmentEVERGREEN Investment PartnersMedici InvestmentAGCC KoreaKorelya CapitalSopoong VenturesSopoong Connect1Billion PartnersBDC AcceleratorPartners Investment
Before you go: the hub's cold email to VCs playbook covers the pre-event outreach that fills a meeting calendar, and Causo matches your stage and thesis to the funds in its database so you know who to ask for a meeting.
Who speaks (2025 completed edition (2025-12-10 to 2025-12-12) for published outcomes; next announced edition: 2026-12-09 to 2026-12-11 at COEX, Seoul.)
- Treq Amin, CEO · HUMAIN
- Sunghyun Park, CEO · Rebellions
- Yongho Choi, CEO · Galaxy Corporation
- Kara Bailey, VP, Android Ecosystem Strategy · Google
- Tony Park, CEO · Kmong Inc.
- Duncan Turner, General Partner · SOSV
- Sean Kang, CEO · WELT
- Fernando Fabre Mendoza, CEO · Kauffman Fellows
- Jaewha Choi, CEO · Bunjang
- Jihee Park, CEO · Kokozi Co.
- Sungyong Bang, CEO · Grinergy
Full lineup: official speakers page.
Notable past speakers
- Tarek Amin, CEO · HUMAIN (2025)
- Sunghyun Park, CEO · Rebellions (2025)
Sponsors and partners
COMEUP PARTNERS 23
Government partners: Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development (KISED), Busan Metropolitan City, Gyeongsan City
Full list: official partners page.
Startups there
275 startups (2025)
Alumni the organiser highlights
- 설로인 source
- 티오더 source
- 고피자 source
- 갤럭시코퍼레이션 source
- 서울로보틱스 source
- 메라키플레이스 source
- 뉴빌리티 source
- 삼신 source
- 플라나 source
- 엑스와이지 source
Programme
| Tracks | Deep Tech (COMEUP 2025 conference theme) · Global / global expansion (COMEUP 2025 conference theme) · Entrepreneurship (COMEUP 2025 conference theme) · OI Ground Track 1 — 1:1 meetups (COMEUP 2026 programme page) · OI Ground Track 2 — Deep Tech Seminar (COMEUP 2026 programme page) · OI Ground Track 3 — Founder Networking (COMEUP 2026 programme page) source |
|---|---|
| Side events | COMEUP 2025’s published programme included Startup Autobahn Korea 2025, the Challenge! K-Startup Grand Finale, TIPS Scale-up Bridge, a senior venture roundtable, the COMEUP Docent Tour, the COMEUP Flea Market, student-founder programming, and the K-Startup Grand Challenge Demo Day. COMEUP 2026 side-event details were not yet published in the current schedule information. |
| Awards | COMEUP 2025 included a Venture & Startup Awards Ceremony recognizing people and organizations that contributed to Korea’s startup ecosystem. The organiser’s published announcement did not give award categories or recipient names. No 2026 awards programme was published in the current programme information. |
| Hackathon | No programme was labelled a hackathon in the official materials consulted. COMEUP 2025 did include the OpenData X AI Challenge, described as offering AI startups opportunities to test and validate their technologies. |
| Call for speakers | No open call for speakers or CFP was found in the current official programme or notice pages. The 2026 site showed the schedule as coming soon and published speaker information, not a submission process. |
| Volunteering | The official notice list records recruitment for COMEUP 2025 supporters called “COMates” (announced 2025-09-30). The current official materials consulted do not provide a 2026 volunteer call or detailed 2025 eligibility, duties or benefits. |
| Hashtag | #COMEUP |
Past editions, as published
| Edition | Dates | Attendees | Investors | Startups | Recap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 source | Dec 10–12, 2025 | — | — | 275 startups (2025) | recap · report |
| 2024 source | Dec 11–12, 2024 | — | — | Approximately 260 startups (2024) | recap · report |
| 2023 source | Nov 8–10, 2023 | 66,000 participants (2023) | More than 160 VC and CVC participants in business matching (2023) | About 80 COMEUP Stars pitch teams (2023) | recap · report |
| 2022 source | Nov 9–11, 2022 | 57,560 visitors (2022) | — | 70 COMEUP Stars finalists (2022) | recap |
| 2021 source | Nov 17–19, 2021 | 50,291 visitors (2021) | — | 72 COMEUP Stars selected (2021) | recap |
| 2020 · Online edition (YouTube). source | Nov 19–21, 2020 | 59,054 visitors (2020) | — | 120 COMEUP Stars selected (2020) | recap |
| 2019 · The organizer's release calls it “ComeUp 2019” and places it within K-Startup Week. source | Nov 27–29, 2019 | 21,102 visitors (2019) | — | — | report |
Cities: Seoul, South Korea; the published history lists DDP for 2021–2023 and COEX for 2024–2026 (2026 announced); 2020 was online.
Who attends
| Geography | Participants from 46 countries (2025). source |
|---|---|
| Roles | Founders, Investors, Corporates, Policy & government, Students |
| Stages | Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Growth, Public |
Official links and socials
Apply
Travel & apps
In the press
- COMEUP 2026 Opens in December... Global and Deep Tech-focused start-up festivals will be expanded — VentureSquare (2026)
- COMEUP to Gather '46 Countries' Becomes Bigger This Year...Expanding support for start-ups' overseas expansion (2026) — MoneyToday (2026)
Prepare for it
- How to cold email VCs — book the meetings before you land.
- The 12-slide seed deck — what to have ready when a partner says "send me the deck".
- Pitch Deck Roaster — a slide-by-slide pass before you submit to COMEUP Stars.
- Accelerator deadlines — the application windows that open around the event.
Sources
Every fact above was read from one of these official pages on Oct 7, 2026:
- portal.comeup.org/en/business-matching
- comeup.org/en
- comeup.org/en/about
- comeup.org/en/comeupstarsalumni
- comeup.org/en/lineup-advisorycommittee
- comeup.org/en/lineup-investors-2025
- comeup.org/en/lineup-investors-2026
- comeup.org/en/lineup-speakers-2026
- comeup.org/en/main-eng
- comeup.org/en/news-announcement/comeup-2025-%EC%84%9C%ED%8F%AC%ED%84%B0%EC%A6%88-%E2%80%98comates%E2%80%99-%EB%AA%A8%EC%A7%91
- comeup.org/en/news-announcement/comeup-2025-%EC%B0%B8%EA%B0%80%EC%9E%90-%EB%8C%80%EC%83%81-%ED%98%B8%ED%85%94-%ED%8A%B9%EB%B3%84%ED%95%A0%EC%9D%B8(comeup-x-%EB%A6%AC%EC%95%84%EB%93%9C%EC%BD%94%ED%8D%BC%EB%A0%88%EC%9D%B4%EC%85%98)-
- comeup.org/en/news-announcement/comeup-stars-2025-final
- comeup.org/en/news-notice
- comeup.org/en/news-report
- comeup.org/en/preregistration
- comeup.org/en/whatiscomeupstars
- comeup.org/news-announcement/comeup-2026-%EC%A0%84%EC%8B%9C%EB%B6%80%EC%8A%A4-%EC%B0%B8%EC%97%AC%EA%B8%B0%EC%97%85-%EB%AA%A8%EC%A7%91-%EC%9D%BC%EB%B0%98%ED%8C%90%EB%A7%A4
- facebook.com/KStartupWeekCOMEUP
- instagram.com/comeup_org
- instagram.com/p/DSWqbyqGJht/; https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-innovation-converges-in-seoul-as-comeup-2025-kicks-off-three-day-festival-302639963.html
- linkedin.com/company/kcomeup
- mss.go.kr/common/board/Download.do?bcIdx=1029814&cbIdx=244&streFileNm=e88460d4-3f56-41b2-ba67-9aa76dd96762.pdf
- mss.go.kr/common/board/Download.do?bcIdx=1045494&cbIdx=244&streFileNm=a726fa6e-4ea2-41f4-9ea7-cee46a99dfe6.pdf
- mss.go.kr/site/eng/ex/bbs/View.do?bcIdx=1024334&cbIdx=244
- mss.go.kr/site/eng/ex/bbs/View.do?bcIdx=1055240&cbIdx=244
- newswire.com/news/comeup-2023-concludes-with-a-grand-finale-establishing-itself-as-the-22177820
- prnewswire.com/news-releases/comeup-2024-concludes-a-global-startup-festival-breaking-boundaries-of-innovation-302336852.html
- prnewswire.com/news-releases/comeup-2025-concludes-successfully-showcasing-three-days-of-global-innovation-under-the-theme-recode-the-future-302643115.html
- prnewswire.com/news-releases/comeup-2025-recode-the-future---officially-launched-in-seoul-302625479.html
- prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-innovation-converges-in-seoul-as-comeup-2025-kicks-off-three-day-festival-302639963.html
- prnewswire.com/news-releases/korea-inaugurates-11th-startup-unicorn-celebrates-entrepreneurship-with-comeup-2019-300974518.html
- youtube.com/c/KStartupWeekComeUp
- youtube.com/watch?v=TmSY3XfsY0Y
COMEUP: frequently asked
When is COMEUP 2026?
COMEUP 2026 runs Dec 9–11, 2026 at COEX Hall B (COMEUP 2025); COEX 3F C Hall (COMEUP 2026)., Seoul, according to the organiser's published dates.
How much does COMEUP cost?
Published ticket prices run Free general-attendee pre-registration (COMEUP 2026). A startup exhibition booth is separate from an attendee ticket: 3,150,000원–3,500,000원, VAT excluded (COMEUP 2026)..
What is COMEUP Stars?
COMEUP's pitch competition. Eligibility: COMEUP Stars is for promising startups seeking global-market expansion; the programme page identifies the U.S., Europe, Japan, China, Singapore and India. No funding-stage or company-age criteria were published on the cited page.