POSCO Group has opened Korea's first advanced manufacturing incubation center in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, launching a full-scale effort to invigorate the regional manufacturing startup ecosystem.
POSCO Group said on the 22nd that it had opened the "RIST Advanced Manufacturing Incubation Center." Built on the applied research capabilities of the Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST), the center is Korea's first manufacturing startup fostering hub, created through public-private cooperation among POSCO Group, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, North Gyeongsang Province and Pohang City.
The center stands two stories above ground with a total floor area of 4,074 square meters, capable of housing up to 10 companies. In particular, to resolve the difficulties that startups in advanced new materials and the energy and environment fields face during product demonstration and mass production despite possessing excellent technologies, the center is equipped with shared infrastructure essential for product demonstration, including cooling water, compressed air and six industrial gases (hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and others). It also supports testing and analysis, reliability assessment and process design technologies.
POSCO Group mobilizes its own capabilities in venture fostering, manufacturing, research and development, and marketing to support the growth of tenant companies. Specifically, it handles the entire incubation process, including discovering promising venture firms, supporting research and development, scaling up facilities and processes, commercialization and securing global sales channels. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups and North Gyeongsang Province plan to back the center's operation.
Through this, tenant companies receive systematic support across the full cycle, from technology development to demonstration and mass production, investment attraction and commercialization, and factory establishment.
The center's opening is an extension of "CHANGeUP," the venture fostering platform POSCO Group has been advancing. POSCO Group has focused on identifying promising companies that can be linked to its strategic businesses at an early stage, then directly investing in them or supporting their research and development to create business synergy, and further connecting this to discovering the group's future growth engines.
Currently, four companies that have received direct and indirect investment and research support from POSCO Group have moved into the center. They include Enforus (high-temperature water electrolysis hydrogen production), which was selected last year as POSCO Holdings' (005490) first planned startup, as well as Solarize (solar inverter production), Berricore Materials (eco-friendly coating agent production) and EAFOS (secondary battery solvent extractant production).
POSCO Group plans to continue supporting the growth of regional manufacturing ventures and to keep contributing to balanced regional development by creating quality jobs and new businesses.
