"K-Fandom Business Catches Europe's Eye" bemyfriends Wins "Startup of the Year" at Global Startup Awards

Global fandom business company bemyfriends announced on the 8th that it has won the "Startup of the Year" award at the 11th Global Grand Final of the "Global Startup Awards (GSA)," the world's largest independent startup awards.

The Global Startup Awards is the world's largest independent startup ecosystem evaluation platform, with 154 countries participating. It comprehensively assesses innovation in the industry, economic and social impact, global expansion strategy, the expertise of the founding team, and a sustainable revenue structure. For the first time this year, the awards ceremony was held in conjunction with the "EU-Startups Summit 2026" (May 7-8, held in Valletta, Malta), Europe's largest startup conference, in front of approximately 2,400 founders and investors from around the world.

Under its mission, "Everyone is a fan of something," bemyfriends operates "b.stage," a solution that supports IP holders in building their own fandom platforms and developing fandom businesses. Currently, more than 350 clients and over 1,100 artists, spanning K-Pop, e-sports, sports, and global content IP, communicate with fandoms in over 230 countries worldwide based on b.stage.

The judging panel, composed of investment firms, entrepreneurs, and related organizations, highly praised bemyfriends for expanding its K-Pop-proven fandom business operation know-how to the entire global IP industry, establishing new market standards, its differentiated business model that grants IP holders ownership of the platform, and its sustainable business structure that has achieved more than double the year-on-year sales growth.

Seo Woo-seok, CEO of bemyfriends, commented, "This is a meaningful award that confirms on the European stage that core fan-based business is no longer solely the domain of K-Pop, but is becoming established as a global business model that can be utilized by IP across all industries. We aim to develop the fandom business operation methods built in Korea into an infrastructure that can be used by IP holders worldwide."

Leveraging this award, bemyfriends plans to accelerate the expansion of b.stage's recognition in the European market and the discovery of global partnerships.