The city of Cheonan announced on the 1st that the "2026 Cheonan C-STAR Awards," held to discover and attract promising startups, successfully wrapped up its two-day schedule on the 30th of last month.

The event, which took place at Cheonan City Hall starting on the 29th of last month, featured a national IR (Investor Relations) pitching contest, investment and technology consultation sessions, meetup days, and innovation lectures.

Ten startups that broke through a competitive national ratio of 34 to 1 took the stage to showcase their technological competitiveness, marketability, and growth potential.

As a result of the competition, K-Bio Gateway (CEO Cho Kyung-won) won the Grand Prize. The Top Excellence Award went to Misoda (CEO Yoon Ye-rim), the Excellence Award to The Jinsool (CEO Lee Jin-woo), and the Encouragement Award to MSP (CEO Do Hyun-sung).

The four selected companies will receive a total of 140 million won in commercialization funds, along with follow-up support such as recommendations for TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup) and Deep-Tech TIPS integration.

Rainbow Pinto's Media (CEO Kim Jung-wook) and K-Bio Gateway (CEO Cho Kyung-won), which recorded the highest investment attraction amounts in the promising corporate IR presentation and the IR final mock investment evaluation, were honored with the Director of the Chungnam Regional Small and Medium Ventures Administration Award.

The venue also buzzed with consultations for practical investment attraction and technological cooperation. At the investment consultation session held in the city hall lobby, 40 investment firms and around 100 startups conducted over 200 investment consultations through 1-on-1 pre-matching, exploring follow-up investment opportunities tailored to each company's growth stage and investment demand.

At the technology consultation session, 13 large and medium-sized enterprises and startups participated in a total of around 80 consultations. They shared the innovative technologies possessed by startups and the demands of industrial fields, discussing possibilities for open innovation, including technology development, demonstration, and commercialization.

In addition, a meetup day featuring venture capitals (VCs) and accelerators (ACs) from the Seoul metropolitan area was held to expand investment attraction opportunities for local startups. For the innovation lectures, former National Gwacheon Science Museum Director Lee Jeong-mo and Author Song Gil-young took the stage as speakers to share insights on the themes of science and technology and social change.

Cheonan City plans to continue providing TIPS recommendations, follow-up investment linkages, and networking support for the startups that participated in and were selected through this event.

Cheonan Mayor Jang Ki-soo stated, "The C-STAR Awards are establishing themselves as a representative startup platform that helps promising startups grow," adding, "We will create a startup environment where they can take on challenges and grow, leaping forward to become South Korea's representative startup city."

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