Kakao Games and BTS Investment by KDB's Foresight... 'Kage' Returns Increase 10 Times

Kakao Games, BTS, Parasite, and Others Reap Investment Benefits from Supporting New Industry Sectors
Leading Role in Creating New Deal Ecosystem in Post-Corona Era

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] Korea Development Bank announced on the 24th that its support efforts over the past decade to strengthen the competitiveness of the cultural content industry, including Kakao Games (game), BTS (singer), and Parasite (movie), are bearing fruit.

In the case of Kakao Games, which recently went public on the KOSDAQ market, KDB invested a total of 5.5 billion KRW through the establishment of two funds and recovered 53.4 billion KRW, achieving an investment return of approximately 9.7 times.

KDB stated, "As a policy financial institution, we are actively fostering new industries including the cultural content industry beyond the bank's traditional investment areas by utilizing funds, and we are also generating profits through this."

Over the past decade, KDB has raised funds worth about 30 trillion KRW through fund contribution projects (KDB's committed contribution approximately 14 trillion KRW), and supported about 45% of total investments in fostering new industry sectors.

In particular, the Growth Support Fund, established with a scale of 9 trillion KRW from 2018 to 2020 to invest in innovative growth industries, invested 2.4 trillion KRW in companies over the past two years. KDB plans to continue support to maximize the effects of government policies related to the New Deal in the future.

Additionally, KDB's Venture Finance Division is executing bold financial support by newly approving direct investments and loans amounting to 326.8 billion KRW by the end of August 2020, a 160.6% increase compared to the previous year's annual performance of 125.4 billion KRW, including in new industry sectors such as SmartStudy (Pinkfong, Baby Shark) and RIDI (the nation's number one e-book platform).

A KDB official said, "With the success of Kakao Games following BTS, we have once again confirmed the competitiveness of the cultural content industry," adding, "We will lead the way in playing a leading role in creating the New Deal ecosystem in the future by simultaneously strengthening the competitiveness of manufacturing companies, nurturing unicorn companies, and fostering innovative growth sectors."