[Exclusive] Atinum, a Big Hit with Dunamu, to Raise Record-Breaking '800 Billion Won' Blind Fund

Anchor LP Prepares Proposal for National Pension and Noryangusan
Targeting First Closing of 500 Billion KRW in September, Incremental Increases as Needed

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Atinum Investment is launching its first blind fund of the year. It continues its 'One-fund' management strategy, focusing capabilities on a single fund. Notably, this fund boasts the largest scale since the company's establishment. Attention is on whether it will complete fund formation despite the recently frozen funding market.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 18th, Atinum Investment is forming the ‘Atinum Growth Investment Association 2022’ with a scale of 800 billion KRW. The anchor limited partner (LP) is the National Pension Service. The National Pension Service has invested in funds formed by Atinum Investment nine times. Including this fund, it will be a total of ten times. Additionally, Atinum plans to submit a proposal for a 240 billion KRW investment project conducted by the Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid Association under the Korea Federation of SMEs.

This fund is being promoted due to the rapid depletion of existing resources. The ‘Atinum Growth Investment Association 2020’, formed in December 2020 with a scale of 550 billion KRW, matures in December 2028 but has already deployed over 70% of its resources. After deducting management fees and operating expenses, the actual capacity for investment is not very large.

Accordingly, the first closing of 500 billion KRW is planned within this year. Subsequently, through multi-closing, the fund will be increased to the target amount of 800 billion KRW to complete formation. The fund name will maintain ‘Atinum Growth Investment Association’, used since 2018. As it is a one-fund strategy, only the formation year is added to the series fund name.

The lead fund manager is veteran investment officer Vice President Kim Je-uk of Atinum Investment. Vice President Kim graduated from Seoul National University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and earned a master's degree in Computer Engineering from the same university. After working in development and technology strategy at Samsung Electronics’ Software Research Center, he joined Atinum Investment in 2010.

Key track records include △ Dunamu, operator of the cryptocurrency exchange ‘Upbit’ △ Ridi, operator of the e-book platform ‘Ridi Books’ △ Zigbang, a real estate brokerage platform. Dunamu is especially notable. He invested in Dunamu in 2016 when cryptocurrency trading was not active. At that time, the valuation was 50 billion KRW. Dunamu’s valuation grew to 20 trillion KRW last year.

An Atinum Investment official said, “The main purpose of the currently forming fund is scale-up,” adding, “Startups entering the growth stage will be the main investment targets.” Given the large fund size, the investment amount per company is expected to exceed 10 billion KRW in the future.

Currently, four venture associations are being managed. The assets under management (AUM) scale is 1.203 trillion KRW solely in venture management assets. Adding the new fund, AUM will exceed 2 trillion KRW.

Meanwhile, Atinum Investment recorded sales (operating revenue) of 84.5 billion KRW and operating profit of 39.7 billion KRW in the first half of this year. These figures represent increases of 435% and 265.8%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. The ‘Atinum High Growth Investment Association’ formed in 2014 (with a total commitment of 203 billion KRW) played a significant role. Its major portfolio includes Dunamu, Zigbang, Kakao Games, Pearl Abyss, LegoChem Biosciences, and Olix.

Meanwhile, the ‘High Growth Enterprise Fund’ formed in 2014 with a scale of 203 billion KRW is scheduled to be liquidated by March next year. The total investment results indicate expected returns of about 6 to 7 times the principal.