Start-ups reach out to international students at D.Camp event

Start-ups interested in expanding abroad and hiring foreigners gathered with international students at a networking event organized by the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs, also known as D.Camp, on April 28.

International students attend a networking event hosted by the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs, or D.Camp, on April 28.

Start-ups interested in expanding abroad and hiring foreigners gathered with international students at a networking event organized by the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs, also known as D.Camp, on April 28.

Start-ups such as DAL Company, Eventus, espressobook and infludeo attended the event, introducing their business to the students and meeting with those who were interested in their company.

"If we want to enter markets abroad, we need to research those markets and know what each countries' cultures are like," said Cho Hyun-na, manager at Eventus. "To achieve those goals, we need international students who are nationals of those countries or have lived in those countries."

Eventus is a start-up that offers a software as a service (Saas) solution for event planning, allowing users to recruit participants, do live streams, do lucky draws and various games on one service.

With events such as networking parties and seminars more common in countries abroad than in Korea, the company plans to enter the market with the help of international students.

Another company that was looking for international students was Forms, a start-up creating virtual humans that companies can use in their advertisements. The company designed and created virtual humans such as Gohar for Hyundai Department Store and Yeo Lizzie for Korea Tourism Organization.

"There's high preference for Korean companies in the virtual human market as Korean culture gets more popular abroad," said Sung Hae-won, CEO of Forms. "Our models are designed to have Korean-like faces and have Korean style makeup, and it's easier for us to enter markets abroad."

Apart from networking, students participating in D.Camp's G-Mingle — pairing international students with start-ups and allowing them to work on projects between May and June — also attended the event to get to know start-ups they will be working with for the next few months. Start-ups such as Innovaid, Namdomarket, Signature Label and tella will be participating in the G-Mingle program.

"As an international student here, there's not many information or opportunities available as much as Korean students," said Batoul Issa, attending the event. "When I saw this on the university website, I though it was a good chance because there aren't as many events for international students."

"I think events like this will help us know more people and it would help in the future."

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]