KT&G(President Baik Bok In) is holiding the '2023 KT&G Sangsangmadang KOCO Challenge (Korea Cosmetics Challenge)' contest to reinforce start-up support in the eco-friendly beauty field.

This contest was planned to expand the start-up support of Busan Sangsangmadang.  The contest is open to eco-friendly beauty brands and products that use natural raw ingredients, and the subjects are skin, hair, body, and make up products. Admission start from today until April 12, and applications can be submitted to the e-mail address guided on the Sangsangmadang website. 

Recruitments are divided into 'beginner' and 'challenger'. For beginner, individuals or a team with less than 5 people can submit their eco-friendly beauty start-up ideas. For challenger, Responsible cosmetics distributors within 5 years of establishment and small businesses based on the Ministry of SMEs and Startups are the subjects.

KT&G will proceed the screening in the order of document review, portfolio review, mentoring camp, and final PT presentation. The selection criteria is creativity, feasibility, topic compatibility, etc., and a total of 3 teams (2 teams for beginner, and 1 team for challenger) will be selected. 

Each of the winning team will receive product development and production support worth KRW 20 million through cooperation with COSMOCOS, a cosmetics company known for brands such as ‘Man with Flowers’, ‘Danahan’, and ‘Vprove’. In addition, follow-up marketing beefit such as offline promotion booth operation linked with the festival held at Busan Sangsangmadang, will be provided. 

KT&G officials stated, “The KOCO Challenge, which is being held for the 3 year this year, has contributed to the growth of beauty start-ups through practical support, such as shipping products to the winning teams”, and added, “As this contest expanded the final selection team and strengthened follow-up support for product marketing, we expect a lot of interest and participation from young people who dream of starting a beauty business.”

(Photo description) ‘2023 KT&G Sangsangmadang KOCO Challenge’ poster image