Selection of promising small and venture companies recommended by operators for investment within this year, supporting full-cycle scale-up growth
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] The operators of the 'Scale-up TIPS,' which will play a key role in discovering promising technology-intensive small and medium ventures, investing first, and supporting investment-type technology development in parallel with government matching, have been selected.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 27th that it has finalized the selection of five operators for the investment-type technology development (R&D) dedicated track (Scale-up TIPS, Tech Investor Program for Scale-up).
According to the 'Investment-type R&D Expansion Plan' announced in August, the existing one-time project unit application was converted to an operator-based system (TIPS method). Accordingly, the five newly selected operators will each play a key role in discovering promising technology-intensive small and medium ventures, investing first, and supporting investment-type technology development in parallel with government matching.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups opened the operator selection announcement on the 6th of last month and received applications until the 1st. As a result, 12 operator consortiums were evaluated step-by-step for investment, technology development (R&D), and global support capabilities. Through document evaluation, on-site inspection, and face-to-face evaluation, the ministry finally selected consortiums capable of intensively nurturing excellent small and medium ventures by utilizing the technological capabilities of research and development service companies and the growth potential insight and investment capabilities of venture capital (VC).
The selected operators include many local investment firms as well as specialized investors in the materials, parts, and equipment (SoBuJang) sector, BIG 3 sectors, and KOSDAQ-listed companies. First, WeVentures and K-Ground Ventures have established various growth support systems for scaling up promising small and medium ventures by leveraging R&D expertise through collaboration with research and development service companies (Technovation Partners, Technology and Value).
Innopolis Partners has achieved specialized investment performance in regional-based manufacturing sectors and is expected to actively support research and development based on government-funded research institutes together with participating companies. Inlight Ventures, in partnership with co-lead Intop Investment, is expected to revitalize investment in relatively underserved non-capital region companies through investments in regionally specialized industrial companies and provide IP-based professional support in cooperation with Invision IP Consulting. L&S Venture Capital plans to actively support global expansion through investments in promising technology-intensive manufacturing companies based on its past achievements in advanced manufacturing investments and through EDI Research.
When the selected operators select and discover promising companies, make prior investments, and recommend them, the government will support scale-up throughout the entire cycle from company selection, research and development, commercialization, to global expansion through matching investments. Additionally, by evaluating the support performance and operational results of each operator, the government will differentially allocate company recommendation rights (T/O) to promote competition and cooperation among operators and plans to gradually expand the number of operators by reviewing future performance.
Minister Kwon Chil-seung of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups said, "Many consortiums showed great interest in the investment-type technology development (R&D) dedicated track (Scale-up TIPS), as evidenced by the large number of applications for operator selection." He added, "All the finally selected operators are highly capable consortiums expected to discover and intensively support promising hardware and manufacturing companies at the scale-up stage, playing a role in revitalizing the investment-based technology development (R&D) innovation ecosystem."
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