Non-Agricultural Business Grant Eligibility Research Decision summary Research date: 2026-09-16, Asia/Seoul Announcement search window: 2026-05-16 through 2026-09-16 Business context used for screening: an actively operating, early-stage sole proprietorship in Suncheon, Jeollanam-do, primarily providing software/AI-based digital services, with no current government-support overlap or known disqualification. No precise owner information, exact revenue, or sub-municipal location is reproduced here. Final result Recommended: none. As of 2026-09-16, I could not verify any program that simultaneously cleared every mandatory gate: the current business itself must be the applicant, applications must be open now, support must be non-repayable and at least KRW 1 million, total mandatory matching must not exceed 30%, the program must not be R&D/loan/investment/guarantee/agriculture-related, and all material eligibility conditions must be verifiable from official sources. There is one program worth preserving as “Needs confirmation” rather than discarding: the 2026 second-round Smart Store Technology Dissemination program. It is currently accepting applications, some support types are large enough and nominally sit at the 30% matching ceiling, but eligibility depends on whether the business’s existing physical space qualifies as an operating “store” and whether an eligible technology configuration can be chosen without pushing mandatory out-of-pocket costs above the permitted ceiling. The current national listings do contain numerous other open startup and business-support calls, but the strict screening rules materially reduce the usable set. The current Business Information portal and K-Startup listings were checked alongside targeted searches of Jeollanam-do, Suncheon, Jeonnam CCEI and the designated discovery source. Research scope and screening The screening was intentionally narrower than a normal “find grants for a startup” search. A program was not retained merely because it mentioned startups, AI, digitalization, businessization, marketing, or Jeollanam-do. For each candidate, I applied the supplied ledger rules in this order: current application status; applicant identity; business-age/location/industry conditions; exclusions; form of support; minimum grant value; matching burden; and finally strategic usefulness. Programs requiring a new or separate business entity, programs whose current round had already closed, financing programs, R&D grants, investment-linked support that could not be separated, agriculture-related programs, event-only support, and support below KRW 1 million were removed rather than shown as weaker recommendations. This matters in particular because several prominent September startup calls are genuinely open but are not automatically compatible with the existing business. The nationwide current listings include new AI/startup competitions and public-data commercialization programs, while the official K-Startup page also shows multiple active September calls. Their existence does not itself establish eligibility under the stricter rules used here. One especially relevant nationwide public-data program opened on 2026-09-15 and offers up to KRW 100 million for public-data analysis, PoC and product/service development to startup companies within seven years. The official integrated announcement confirms the open period through 2026-10-06 and the basic startup-company requirement. The government’s own policy release says 18 public institutions supplied 22 specific challenges and around 20 startups will be selected, including AI population-density prediction and other institution-defined problems. I did not promote it into the results below because the material needed to conclusively clear the supplied self-funding and exact task-fit hard gates was not sufficiently established from the official materials I could validate; under the supplied rules, uncertainty created by incomplete research is not a reason to label a program eligible. Likewise, the heavily promoted second-round national “모두의 창업 프로젝트” is not suitable for treating the existing business as the supported entity. Its official announcement permits existing founders within seven years only when pursuing a different-industry startup, and later-stage support requires the qualifying different-industry new business to be established. That conflicts with the instruction that the present business—not a newly created separate business—must be the applicant/support recipient, so it is not included as a result. Recommended Priority Program · administering body Application status · deadline Eligibility decision Non-repayable support Matching · repayment Strategic value Next action — None confirmed — No currently identified program cleared every hard gate with sufficient official verification — — — Do not substitute lower-quality or conditionally ineligible programs Accordingly, there is no grant I would presently describe on a public page as “this business can apply now” without qualification. This is a deliberate result rather than an absence of September programs. The official Business Information portal is actively carrying numerous current calls, including AI, startup, digitalization and commercialization programs, but the location, applicant-identity, program-form, matching or minimum-value filters eliminate or leave unresolved the relevant options for this specific business. Needs confirmation Priority Program · administering body Application status · deadline Currently confirmed conditions Additional verification needed Expected non-repayable support Next action 1 2026년 2차 스마트상점 기술보급사업 참여 소상공인 모집 · Ministry of SMEs and Startups / Small Enterprise and Market Service Open; 2026-08-26 to 2026-09-30 Operating small merchants may apply; a Small Business Confirmation is required. The 2026 scheme includes purchase, rental and software types. Whether the existing Suncheon space constitutes an eligible operating store; right to use/install at the premises; selected technology category; final quote and all applicant-paid amounts Potentially several million won for qualifying purchase/rental configurations; software-only support is below this research’s minimum threshold. First verify store eligibility with the implementing agency, then obtain an eligible-technology quote showing subsidy, matching amount, VAT and any excluded charges separately Smart Store Technology Dissemination Program Why a possibility remains. The second recruitment round is genuinely open on the research date. The official integrated notice gives an application period from 2026-08-26 through 2026-09-30 and identifies the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Small Enterprise and Market Service as the responsible bodies. The target is an operating small merchant, with formal small-business status documentation required. The business information supplied for this research is broadly compatible with being an operating small business, but that is not enough by itself. The critical unresolved point is the program’s concept of an operating store. The business has an existing space in Suncheon, but its ownership/lease/use rights, approved use, customer-facing operation and suitability for installation were not provided. Those are precisely the kinds of missing space facts that the supplied eligibility rules require to be treated as “Needs confirmation,” not guessed. Currently confirmed official support conditions. The official 2026 Smart Store application information distinguishes purchase, rental and software support. It shows standard government-support ratios of roughly 70% for relevant general purchase/rental configurations, while certain other configurations have different ratios; the software-only line is much smaller. Official support ceilings include several-million-won purchase/rental support, with purchase-type ceilings reaching roughly KRW 5–7 million depending on category and rental support reaching roughly KRW 3.5 million per year. For this research, that means only configurations that both provide at least KRW 1 million of non-repayable value and keep formal mandatory matching at or below 30% are potentially admissible. A 50%-support configuration would fail the supplied hard gate immediately. The low-value software-only configuration also fails the KRW 1 million minimum and therefore is not a usable route for this research. What must be confirmed about the business. The first question is not revenue or founder age. It is whether the existing physical space is an eligible “store” for this program and whether the current registered business can obtain the required small-business confirmation in the applicable category. The second is whether an approved smart technology actually makes sense for that location. The third is the complete applicant cost: matching payment, VAT, installation or construction not covered by the subsidy, costs above the program ceiling, and any other excluded expenses. This third check is important because a nominal government-share ratio at the exact 70/30 boundary leaves no buffer under the user-defined 30% maximum. Any amount that the program treats as separately applicant-funded should therefore be identified before treating the program as fully eligible. What the support is useful for. This is potentially useful when the existing space will operate as a real service, education, experience or customer-facing location and an approved smart-store technology would materially improve that operation. It could therefore complement a future non-agricultural AI education or space-based service if the physical business model meets the program rules. It is not a general-purpose operating grant. It should not be treated as flexible money for ordinary payroll, unrestricted marketing, general web-service development or arbitrary remodeling. The program is specifically structured around approved smart-store technology purchase, rental or software deployment. Matching and advance payment. Potentially usable standard configurations sit at approximately the research ceiling of 30% applicant matching. Because actual technology price, subsidy cap and non-supported amounts can change the business’s cash requirement, this cannot safely be converted into a final “eligible” judgment until a specific product/configuration and quote are selected. Major implementation obligations. At minimum, the applicant must establish qualifying small-merchant status, apply through the designated Smart Store process, select an eligible technology and complete the corresponding purchase/rental/deployment and evidentiary procedures. The current integrated announcement provides the program notice and applicant guidance as official attachments. Materials to prepare. The useful preparation set is limited and concrete: proof of small-business status, business registration information, evidence of the legal right to use the existing space, documents showing its actual business use, and a supplier quotation that separates the supported supply price from VAT and every non-supported charge. Exact private business figures do not need to be published. Next action. Before spending time on an application, obtain a yes/no answer from the implementing agency on whether the present software/AI business’s existing Suncheon premises qualify as an eligible operating store. Only after a positive answer should an approved technology and quotation be selected. If the final mandatory applicant burden exceeds 30%, or the premises are treated merely as an office rather than an eligible store, this candidate should be discarded. Overall assessment The strict outcome on 2026-09-16 is therefore: Confirmed, directly applicable non-repayable grants: none. Conditional possibilities worth further eligibility verification: one — the second-round 2026 Smart Store Technology Dissemination Program. It survives only because the unresolved items are facts about the business’s physical premises and exact technology configuration rather than an already-confirmed eligibility failure. The absence of a recommended program should not be interpreted as a lack of government programs in September. Current national portals show substantial activity, including new startup, AI and public-data commercialization calls. The binding constraints here are narrower: support must flow to the existing business, must be non-repayable and non-R&D, must clear the minimum value, and must require no more than the allowed matching burden. Applying those conditions strictly leaves no candidate that can presently be represented publicly as fully eligible without an unresolved material condition.