Startups looking for investors, corporate partners or routes into South Korea still have a few days to apply for 1:1 business meetings at Try Everything 2026, one of Seoul’s main international startup events.

The dedicated startup application window closes on August 16. Applicants can select up to five investors or large and mid-sized companies from the event’s participating organisations. If approved by the counterparties, each startup can ultimately receive up to three 1:1 meetings.

The meetings will take place during Try Everything 2026 on September 9–10 at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul.

The useful part of Try Everything for founders is that the matchmaking process starts before the event.

Startups first review the available investor and corporate participants, choose the organisations they want to approach and submit company information together with an IR deck in PDF format. The selected investor or company then reviews the request and decides whether to accept the meeting.

Approval is therefore not automatic. A startup can request five meetings, but the final number depends on whether the selected counterparties accept the applications. The organiser caps confirmed meetings at three per startup.

That structure makes the programme more actionable than simply attending a conference and hoping to meet the right investor on-site.

Try Everything describes its business meetup programme as a route for startups, investors and larger companies to discuss fundraising, technology and product collaboration, partnerships and overseas market expansion.

The broader event also includes IR pitching, open innovation, exhibitions, conferences and networking involving startups, VCs, accelerators and corporates from Korea and other markets. The organiser explicitly positions Try Everything as an international startup gathering with participants from Asia, Europe, North America and elsewhere.

The event reports that its 2025 edition attracted more than 7,700 attendees, 1,620 VCs and accelerators and 1,400 startups, with more than 540 meetings held. Those figures are historical rather than guarantees for the 2026 edition, but they give some indication of the scale of the ecosystem involved.

Try Everything presents the programme as involving both Korean and overseas startups, investors and companies, and its registration system includes nationality as a participant field. The general registration page also provides a specific startup participation route.

However, meeting acceptance remains subject to organiser and counterparty approval, so international applicants should not assume that registering guarantees an investor meeting.

For startups interested in Korean investors, strategic partners or corporate cooperation, the current value of Try Everything is therefore not simply the September conference itself. It is the opportunity to enter the matchmaking process before the August 16 deadline and approach specific participants with an IR deck already in hand.

SAKIME
East Asian startup, technology and investment intelligence.

Web: sakime.jp
LinkedIn: SAKIME
Author — Adrià Mas Rodríguez

This article is provided for information purposes and does not constitute an investment recommendation or solicitation.