WeGO and Next Challenge Foundation Sign MoU to Foster Youth Entrepreneurship and Global Smart City Innovation
Seoul, June 13, 2025 — Seoul, June 13, 2025 — The World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) and the Next Challenge Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen collaboration in advancing innovation in smart cities and supporting global youth entrepreneurship.
The Next Challenge Foundation is a leading global accelerator focused on public-private governance within the startup ecosystem. The foundation is dedicated to building future startup cities by nurturing innovative talent, strengthening the startup education ecosystem, and accelerating both domestic and international startups through company building. It also focuses on expanding the network of stakeholders in the startup ecosystem.
The MoU outlines a shared commitment to supporting the global scaling of smart city technologies, promoting joint startup acceleration, enhancing educational collaboration, and expanding international cooperation opportunities. Through this agreement, the two organizations aim to pool their resources and expertise to empower youth and startups, while building a globally connected youth innovation ecosystem.
The signing ceremony, held at the Next Challenge Foundation’s Seoul Office, was attended by WeGO Secretary General Mr. Jeong-kee Kim and his team, and the event served as an occasion to reaffirm the growing partnership between WeGO and the Next Challenge Foundation, grounded in a mutual vision for inclusive, sustainable, and innovation-driven urban development.
This collaboration also reflects ongoing synergies between the two organizations. Mr. Youngrok Kim, CEO of the Next Challenge Foundation, currently serves as an Advisory Board member for WeGO and a judge for the Youth Entrepreneurship category of the Global Youth Award. Launched in 2025 under the WeGO Smart Sustainable City Champions Program, the Global Youth Award is a capacity-building initiative designed to foster expertise on smart cities among young leaders under the age of 35. Mr. Kim’s strategic role within WeGO contributes valuable insights to the organization’s global mission.
During the visit, WeGO and the Foundation also discussed some concrete next steps for collaboration, including connecting students and startups from the Foundation with WeGO’s international network and programs. They also explored opportunities to involve students and startups in upcoming WeGO events, including the Global Youth Award Ceremony to be held during the Seoul Smart Life Week. Additionally, the Foundation expressed interest in inviting WeGO to contribute to its educational programs by offering high-level lectures, workshops, and thought leadership, engaging a broader audience of students, startups, and innovation leaders from all around the world.
Furthermore, as part of the collaboration, WeGO has been invited to play a more active role in the governance structures by participating in the Foundation’s Advisory Committee, further strengthening WeGO’s strategic influence in shaping the future of global startup ecosystems and smart city innovation.
Both WeGO and the Next Challenge Foundation reaffirmed their strong commitment to empowering youth and young entrepreneurs as key drivers of urban innovation and long-term global sustainability.
About WeGO
The World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO), is a membership-based international association of local governments, smart tech solution providers, and institutions committed to the transformation of cities into smart sustainable cities through facilitating public-private partnerships (PPP). WeGO was founded by 50 member cities in 2010 as the World e-Governments Organization, hence our acronym. In response to the evolving concept of smart cities, WeGO expanded its vision and mandate at the 7th General Assembly (2017) and its name to the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization. WeGO’s Secretariat is based in Seoul, Korea, and has regional offices in East Asia (Chengdu, China), the Mediterranean (Beyoglu, Turkey), Africa (Abuja, Nigeria), Middle East & North Africa (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), Latin America (Cuenca, Ecuador), and Central Asia (Almaty, Kazakhstan). As the leading platform on smart city development, WeGO’s mission is to share knowledge and good practices in e-Governance; strengthen administrative efficiency and transparency; advance digital capacity; facilitate civic involvement; bridge the digital divide and inequality; and promote cooperation solidarity among cities and local governments around the world.
WeGO serves for its members as their international platform to improve the quality of life, innovate in the delivery of public services, and strengthen regional competitiveness.
Press Contact:
Name: Kakim Danabayev
E-mail: kakim@we-gov.org
Phone: +82-70-4202-9169