The "Incheon Innovation Mo Fund No. 1 Association Formation Business Agreement Ceremony" was held on the 8th at Incheon City Hall, where attendees are taking a commemorative photo. From the left: Jang Gyu-jin, Chairman of Gyeonggi Incheon Mechanical Industry Cooperative; Kim Dong-hoon, President of Incheon Vision Enterprise Association; Park Nam-chun, Mayor of Incheon; Shin Young-seok, Senior Vice President of Incheon IP Entrepreneurs Council; Kim Seok-jun, Director of Incheon Creative Economy Innovation Center. [Photo by Incheon City]
[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City has signed a business agreement to establish the 'Incheon Innovation Mother Fund No. 1 Association' with the Incheon Vision Enterprise Association, Incheon IP Management Association, and Gyeonggi-Incheon Machinery Industry Cooperative.
According to the city on the 9th, the Mother Fund No. 1 Association is a mother fund-type association that invests in individual funds rather than direct corporate investment, and will invest in digital, green, and bio sectors according to the Incheon-type New Deal business plan over the next four years.
The fund size is 10 billion KRW, and the institutions that signed the agreement agreed to actively cooperate with each other not only in funding but also to revitalize the local economy.
The Incheon Vision Enterprise Association will build open innovation to discover new businesses for its 1,137 member companies and activate the local venture startup ecosystem, while the Incheon IP Management Association will be responsible for securing intellectual property rights and enhancing corporate value for venture startups through its network of 109 member companies.
The Gyeonggi-Incheon Machinery Industry Cooperative, among its 331 member companies, will support promising venture startups by linking excellent manufacturing and marketing infrastructure such as refrigeration and air conditioning, water treatment machinery, pumps, and transport machinery, and the Incheon Creative Economy Innovation Center will handle the cooperative’s operational tasks.
Incheon Mayor Park Namchun said, "The formation of a mother fund-type association, which secures investment budgets led by the city and induces private participation to increase seed money, is a good example of creating an investment environment that can discover and nurture local companies with growth potential." He added, "We will do our best to encourage more institutions to participate in forming mother fund associations and to build a city environment conducive to investment."
Meanwhile, Incheon City plans to create an Incheon Innovation Mother Fund worth a total of 600 billion KRW over four years starting this year by investing 60 billion KRW to foster Incheon-type New Deal industries and revitalize the local investment ecosystem to drive regional economic growth.
In the first half of this year, it invested 4.5 billion KRW in three sectors: venture startups, shared services, and intellectual property, forming a total fund of 150 billion KRW.
Additionally, accelerators that were based in Seoul have been attracted to Incheon, and two more venture capital (VC) firms will be attracted within the year to continuously draw investment institutions that were concentrated in Seoul and Gyeonggi to Incheon.
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