PLAVE Becomes the Startup Ambassador of Seoul!

The virtual idol group 'PLAVE' has been officially appointed as the first startup ambassador of Seoul.

On the morning of the 12th, the city of Seoul announced that it held the appointment ceremony for the '2025 Startup Seoul Ambassadors and Try Everything Promotion Team' at the city hall's main conference room. This appointment was made based on Seoul's achievement of ranking 8th in the world in the 'Startup Genome' evaluation of the best cities for startups in June.

PLAVE's agency, VLAST, is a Seoul-based startup that possesses motion capture-based 3D content production technology, which is considered a symbolic representation of Seoul's innovative startup ecosystem. Composed of five members: Yejun, Noah, Bambi, Eunho, and Hamin, PLAVE is a virtual boy group that handles its own songwriting, composing, and choreography.

PLAVE has recently achieved remarkable success. Their Japanese single 'Kakurenbo', released in June, recorded 2.7 million streams on its first day, becoming the first song to be listed in Melon's 'Hall of Fame'. Since their debut in 2023, they have won the Golden Disc and Seoul Music Awards, gaining recognition for both musicality and popularity. Additionally, PLAVE will begin an Asia tour starting with a concert in Seoul this month, covering six cities including Taiwan, Tokyo, and Bangkok.

The appointment ceremony was attended by over 30 people, including Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, PLAVE, VLAST CEO Lee Seong-gu, popular influencers On Oppa and Lillian, university student supporters, and a volunteer group of foreign students. Notably, a unique scene was created where the virtual world and reality were connected.

As Mayor Oh presented the appointment certificate to the representative of PLAVE's agency, the members of PLAVE were seen receiving it in real-time from the virtual world 'ASTERUM' on a large screen. The members of PLAVE expressed, "We are honored to have the opportunity to promote Seoul's excellent startup ecosystem to the world," and stated, "We will widely convey the charm of Seoul together with our global fans."

The city of Seoul explained that it plans to utilize PLAVE's global fandom and the impact of K-content to spread the brand value of Seoul as a startup city. During the global startup festival 'Try Everything', which will be held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza from September 11 to 12, videos of PLAVE, who has been appointed as ambassadors, will be broadcasted, and a photo zone will be set up.

On this day, the Try Everything Promotion Team was also officially launched. The promotion team consists of 100 members, including 10 influencers, 60 university student supporters, and 30 foreign student volunteers.

Mayor Oh emphasized, "This year, Seoul achieved its highest ranking ever as the 8th best city in the world for startups," and stated, "We will support the creation of a city where young people can realize their dreams and take a step further, through space support, talent development, and even the elimination of regulations, to truly establish Seoul as a leading startup city."