Ministry of Land Funds 17 Billion Won Blind Fund Established
Focused Investment in Key Regional Defense Sector 'Infrastructure Industry'
Target IRR 18%
[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] ES Investor has established a new blind fund. Successfully raising its tenth fund since the company's founding, it is further expanding its business. In particular, this fund is expected to be used for startups improving inefficiencies in space and transportation. Attention is focused on its future investment moves.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 7th, ES Investor formed the ‘ES Smart Infrastructure Fund’ with a total commitment amount of approximately 17 billion KRW. It held the first closing with the minimum formation amount of 17 billion KRW. The fund was raised through the Korea Venture Investment Corp’s mother fund and ‘Shinhan Startup Venture General Private Investment Trust No. 5’ managed by Shinhan Asset Management, among others. The fund size is planned to be increased to 20 billion KRW in the future.
The lead fund manager is Executive Director Junseok Seo. Director Seo majored in Industrial Engineering at Seoul National University and entered the VC industry through Partners Investment after working at Samsung Electronics and Kakao. He joined ES Investor in 2016. He has exit experience with various companies such as Krafton, PetFriends, and LeisureQ. He boasts expertise in IT, convergence, smart, and infrastructure sectors.
Previously, ES Investor submitted a proposal for investment to the second round of the mother fund’s general account for national land and transportation innovation in 2022. After competing with Maple Investment Partners, Symphony Investment, and SGC Partners, it was selected as the entrusted management company (GP). It secured the GP status as the sole candidate, surpassing all competitors from the first screening.
The main investment target of this fund is small and venture companies in the space and transportation infrastructure business. More than 70% of the total commitment amount must be invested in this field. ES Investor plans to actively discover and invest in companies related to mobility and smart cities. This infrastructure industry is considered a representative defensive sector. It is a sector that can generate investment returns even in deteriorating market conditions.
ES Investor has experience managing a shared housing fund invested by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in 2020. At that time, it rapidly depleted fund resources by focusing investments on companies supplying and operating shared housing. Representative companies include shared housing operators MGRV (Mangrove), Stays, Homes Company, Local Stitch, and Nido Company. In addition, it also included portfolios such as Ghost Kitchen and Laundry Task Force, which operate shared kitchens.
Through this fund, it plans to discover 10 companies. It aims to play a role as a growth catalyst by conducting first-round and follow-on investments simultaneously. The goal is to achieve a target internal rate of return (IRR) of 18% through stable portfolio composition. Since infrastructure-related affiliates such as construction, development, and asset management are stationed within the EunSan Group, close cooperation is expected to create synergy effects when discovering related companies.
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