News

SansOx does it again. We have been chosen to be part of the K-Startup Grand Challenge, a startup program in South Korea hosted by the Korean National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), Korea Innovation Center (KIC) and Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

The 80 participating companies in the program were picked among 1870 applicants from 108 countries. The program itself is 3,5 months long, including matchmaking and acceleration from the program organization, but also a handpicked startup accelerator, which in Sansox case is Chungwoon New Technology Investment Co. (CNTI). The program includes a gratuitous investment of about 10 000 USD.

The purpose of CNTI is to provide mentoring and coaching for R&D for technology development, product/service design, business model development, and corporate value enhancement. They also provide financial liaison services, and have their own venture fund as well.

Sansox has sent Senior Area Manager Sampsa Siitonen to handle the Korean operation as Head of Korean Office. Mr. Siitonen has experience in international trade, and has local experience in Korea through his Bachelors studies in Sungkyunkwan University, situated in Seoul. “I am very fortunate to be able to return to a country I enjoy and respect in many ways. I have had a passion to move back to Korea, and the KSGC program gives Sansox and me the perfect chance to work in the local market and thrive. We are already making major headway with new customers & distributors, and starting investor relations to secure funding for our Asian expansion efforts, not to mention the Korean internal market itself, which is remarkably receptive to our solutions. There is a genuine need here for novel water treatment methods. At this point I would like to thank the KSGC staff and CNTI for helping us succeed so far, and their continuous assistance to us in all things from language & culture to finding new contacts.”

The goal for Sansox in this program is to continue working on the existing customer relationships opened in the EU-funded program Gateway to Korea, and cultivating new relationships as well. Sansox aims to sign up new distributors, customers and investors by the end of 2018 through the program. In addition, as the KSGC program is a competition, 50 % of accepted companies continue to the next round, where they receive and investment of about 22 000 USD from the Korean Government to continue operations in Korea. At this point, Sansox believes that it is generating revenue and has secured investment from local investors, to truly start a lasting operation in Korea and the South-East Asian region.