COMEUP 2026

About the event

COMEUP is a government-backed global startup festival held each year in Seoul. The 2026 edition, its eighth, runs from 9 to 11 December at COEX in the Gangnam district. It is hosted by South Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups, with the Korea Startup Forum as organizer, and talks are also streamed on YouTube.

The festival brings together startups, investors, corporations and ecosystem leaders. Its stated elements include talks, networking, business matching, open innovation and cross-border partnerships. For 2026 the organizers highlight international expansion and deep tech as core themes, and the COMEUP Stars programme, which helps Korean startups test overseas markets, has grown to six regions. A separate business matching portal exists for investor and startup meetings, and speakers listed on the site include executives from Google and several Korean companies.

The event is startup and ecosystem oriented in general, not specific to mobile or subscription apps, and the sources do not mention app buyers or acquirers. For app founders it is most useful for learning about the Korean market, meeting Asian investors and corporates, and looking for expansion partners. Attendance figures are not stated on the pages I read.

Who should attend

Useful for app founders considering expansion into Korea or wider Asia, and for investors and corporate teams scouting startups there. It is a broad startup festival, not an app-trading venue.

Tips: register for pre-registration and the business matching portal ahead of time, and book meetings before arriving. Prepare a short English one-pager with traction, revenue and target markets, and check the speaker list for corporate contacts relevant to distribution or partnerships.