GS Group Establishes GS Ventures, Its First Corporate Venture Capital as a Major Conglomerate Holding Company

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] GS Group is establishing a corporate venture capital (CVC) for the first time among large conglomerate holding companies.

According to the investment industry on the 27th, GS Group's CVC, 'GS Ventures,' completed its registration for new technology business finance with the Financial Supervisory Service on the same day.

The capital is 13 billion KRW, and the explicit business plan is to discover and nurture startups in fields such as bio, climate change response, resource circulation, and new energy to secure GS Group's new growth engines.

Vice President Heo Jun-nyeong, who was in charge of investment and mergers & acquisitions (M&A) at Mirae Asset and UBS, was appointed as CEO.

CVC refers to large corporations that invest in venture companies for strategic purposes. Previously, under the principle of separation of finance and industry (Geumsan Separation), general large conglomerate holding companies were not allowed to establish venture capital firms.

However, since the revised Fair Trade Act came into effect last year, the path has opened. Following Dongwon Group's Dongwon Technology Investment completing registration in March to start the trend, GS Ventures also succeeded in registration, becoming the first large conglomerate holding company to establish a CVC.