Specialized Science and Technology Commercialization VC, Securing Future Growth by Early Investment in Seed-Stage Excellent Technologies
As the role of specialized VCs in science and technology commercialization gains attention, K-Ground Ventures, which operates the Hongneung Science and Technology Commercialization Fund jointly established by the Korea Fund of Funds, government-affiliated research institutes, universities, local governments, and mid-sized listed companies, is drawing interest.
Currently, K-Ground Ventures serves as a co-operator of Scale-up TIPS and Post-TIPS, early identifying and investing in disruptive innovative technologies leading advanced technology trends such as semiconductors, bio, metaverse, mobility, and environment, and is achieving results that drive global business development.
The background of these achievements lies not only in the investment and industrial network experience gained by CEO Nam-Hoon Cho, former inaugural CEO of Korea Science and Technology Holdings, at a large corporate-affiliated VC, but also in the expertise demonstrated by securing annually forecasted promising core technology trends and technology commercialization information through research entities and industry-academic cooperation centers, pre-planning that combines demand technologies with market needs, and boldly executing catalytic investments such as researcher startups, research institute companies, and joint venture establishments, according to industry evaluations.
During his tenure as the inaugural CEO of Korea Science and Technology Holdings, CEO Nam-Hoon Cho, together with global semiconductor expert Technical Advisor Ki-Nam Choi, facilitated the M&A of Plasmart (now Bluepoint Partners CEO Yong-Kwan Lee) to global companies, creating a virtuous cycle in the Daedeok region’s startup ecosystem. He is also a leading figure who has generated tangible science and technology commercialization outcomes by M&A and IPO of many research-based startup companies.
During his time as CEO of Korea Science and Technology Holdings, he invested in NF Co., Ltd. (CEO Sang-Gon Lee), a government-funded research institute’s technology commercialization company producing medical oxygen generators, recognizing its growth potential in the global market. When global demand surged due to COVID-19 five years later, he focused on post-investment scale-up activities by supporting follow-up investments, R&D, and marketing, contributing to more than doubling exports as of April 2022 compared to the previous year.
[CEO Lee Sang-gon of NF (right) and CEO Cho Nam-hoon of K-Ground (left) who signed the investment contract (Photo by K-Ground Ventures)]
Recently, after early investment in semiconductor and display technology company HunetPlus (CEO Hyuk-Jin Cha), K-Ground Ventures secured stable R&D funding through Scale-up TIPS selection support, leading to follow-up investments from a leading domestic mid-sized semiconductor company. This has prevented the overseas outflow of world-class technology and created a co-growth model for mid-sized companies, achieving a win-win effect. Additionally, Yellowknife (CEO Han-Sung Lee), which started as an in-house venture at Hyundai Motor Company and is creating future mobility experiences, secured stable R&D and marketing funds through early investment and follow-up investment attraction support, preparing for the commercialization of infotainment digital cockpit in 2022.
K-Ground Ventures is also actively promoting scale-up in the metaverse sector, recognized as the next-generation new growth engine. They made a strategic investment in Digisonic (CEO Ji-Heon Kim), a global metaverse audio technology company, attracting follow-up investments exceeding 2 billion KRW and leading the company to win two innovation awards at CES 2022. Recently, they supported digital healthcare research using metaverse sound in collaboration with the University of Texas, achieving groundbreaking results such as patent acquisition in the digital healthcare field.
Furthermore, they have invited investment experts from Silicon Valley to introduce investment attraction and marketing strategies in the U.S. market to portfolio companies and facilitate networking, providing comprehensive support to enterprises.
Nam-Hoon Cho, CEO of K-Ground Ventures, stated, “As chairman of the Hongneung Special Zone Investment Council and a specialized investment firm in science and technology commercialization, we will dedicate ourselves further to achieving results for domestic science and technology companies in the global market.”
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
