[Press Release] Unastella Selected as a Final Participant in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Tech Startup Support Program, 'TIPS'

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With the “fast track” introduced for the first time this year, it passed TIPS and secured 500 million won in research funding for two years

The first domestic private crewed space launch vehicle startup, founded in February this year, attracted seed investment from Bluepoint Partners just one month after its establishment

(Unastella – 2022.05.12) the country's first private crewed space launch vehicle startup, Unastella Co., Ltd. (CEO Park Jae-hong), has been selected as a final recipient of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' private investment-led technology startup support program ‘TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup)’. TIPS is a government-backed startup fostering program in which the government and private investors jointly select promising startups with excellent business models and outstanding technological capabilities and provide intensive support.

Unastella said it was selected for the TIPS program through a recommendation from TIPS operator and accelerator Bluepoint Partners, securing 500 million won in technology development and research funding for two years from May 2022 to April 2024. In particular, Unastella drew attention by passing TIPS' evaluation process through the ‘fast track.’ The ‘fast track’ is a recommendation-right system introduced for the first time this year, designed to allow startups that receive very high scores in the document review to skip the in-person evaluation and proceed immediately to selection and agreement.

Unastella is the first domestic private crewed launch vehicle startup established in February this year. It attracted seed funding from Bluepoint Partners in March, just one month after its establishment, and then was selected for the TIPS program, securing initial R&D funding. Unastella aims to provide suborbital space tourism services by developing a launch vehicle capable of crewed spaceflight up to an altitude of 100 km, and is currently designing and developing its own engine based on an electric motor pump cycle engine system.

Unastella CEO Park Jae-hong said, “A crewed space launch vehicle will become an essential platform in the space age that is surely coming,” adding, “Based on our accumulated technology and efficient development philosophy, Unastella will pioneer South Korea’s space tourism market.”

An official from Bluepoint Partners, which led Unastella's investment and TIPS selection, said, “We decided to invest in Unastella after comprehensively evaluating the CEO’s extensive experience in launch vehicle development from the German Aerospace Center, along with domestic and international networks, vision, and spirit of challenge,” adding, “We highly value the emergence of a startup in Korea developing a crewed spaceflight launch vehicle.” (End)