Last year we reported about the unique momentum of the South Korean innovation scene. As of June 2022, South Korea is continuing on a thriving growth trajectory, setting the stage for becoming a dominant innovation hub at global scale.

The country’s innovation ecosystem – now showing signs of maturity – excels in all indicators. The number of scaleups increased by 35% since 2020 and broke the one thousand bar (1,124). Capital investments more than doubled ($48.2B) over the same period. With 2.4 scaleups every 100K inhabitants – and roughly 2% of the country’s GDP invested in the local innovation economy – South Korea is now outperforming – in relation to the size of its overall economy – innovation powerhouses such as Germany, France, and the UAE, while shortening the gap with the UK.