SK Planet, part of South Korea's biggest mobile operator SK Telecom announced the launch of its accelerator program '101 Startup Korea' for early stage startups yesterday. The application period will last until August 16, followed by application screening and an interview round. Once the final participants are selected, the incubation program will start on September 2 and will continue until February 28, 2014.

SK Planet, established in October 2011 as a wholly owned subsidiary of SK Telecom, leads the revolution of online and mobile service platform with its Digital Contents, Integrated Commerce and Advertising & Marketing Businesses.

The application is open to any founding team (or to-be founding team) that consists of 2 or more members. The selection is based on a number of criteria, such as whether the project could be materialized, if it is likely to succeed, team members' growth. To the selected teams, the program provides access to a mentoring pool of 51 top-professionals, including Taek-Gyung Lee, Founder of Primer, Junghee Ryu, Founder of  Olaworks  and SKP experts including Jung Ki Hyun, CPO and former  International Product Manager at Google, Yu Kyungsang, Product Strategy Group Leader. The teams will also get the chance to network with numerous Angel investors/ VCs.

For the whole duration of 6 months, selected teams are provided with office space, access to OIC's ( Open Innovation Center) wide collection of more than 300 smartphone devices for testing purposes, legal assistance, etc.

"The motivation behind this program is the desire to systematically foster startups and create success stories, by involving the best domestic experts and SKP's professionals. Along with K-startup, which we operate in collaboration with AppCenter, we aim to develop 101 Startup into a program representing shared growth," added Yongjoon Choi, Manager of the 101 Startup Korea program.

101 Startup Korea Program website: https://oic.skplanet.com/front/startup/viewStartUpInfo.action#