[News Inside Companies] The '1st Generation VC' Up for Sale... What Kind of Place is Daol Investment?

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] Daol Investment & Securities is attracting attention as it plans to sell its venture capital (VC) affiliate, Daol Investment.

Daol Investment, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, originated from KTB Network, known as Korea's 'first-generation VC.' KTB Network was founded in 1981 as the public enterprise 'Korea Technology Development.' Korea Technology Development was reestablished in 1992 as Korea Comprehensive Technology Finance.

Former KTB Financial Group Chairman Kwon Seong-moon acquired Korea Comprehensive Technology Finance, which temporarily became a distressed company due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout in 1999, and reorganized it into the investment specialist company KTB Network. Later, in 2008, Kwon obtained a comprehensive securities business license from the Financial Services Commission and changed the company name to KTB Investment & Securities. In the same year, the venture investment division of KTB Investment & Securities was spun off as a subsidiary, KTB Network. Following the parent group's name change in March, KTB Network was renamed Daol Investment.

Daol Investment has invested over 2 trillion KRW in more than 1,200 domestic and international venture companies. A representative successful investment case is Baedal Minjok (Woowa Brothers), in which it invested 2.3 billion KRW and recovered 62.9 billion KRW. Additionally, it has invested in fintech platform company Toss (Viva Republica) and gene-related research and development company ToolGen.

As of the end of last year, the assets under management (AUM) were approximately 1.1745 trillion KRW, and it is expected to reach 1.4 trillion KRW by the end of this year. It was listed on the KOSDAQ market in December last year.

Former Chairman Kwon is known in the financial industry as a 'genius of venture investment.' He operated KTB Investment & Securities for 19 years but stepped down from the chairman position in 2018 after losing a management rights dispute with KTB Financial Group Chairman Lee Byung-chul (then Vice Chairman).

In 2018, Lee became the largest shareholder of KTB Investment & Securities and recently changed the company name. Through the regular shareholders' meeting in March this year, the company started anew under the name 'Daol' instead of 'KTB.' 'Daol' is a pure Korean word meaning 'blessings come with everything you do,' and it is also the name of the first company founded by Chairman Lee.

Previously, in 2004, Chairman Lee established 'Daol Real Estate Trust,' Korea's first private real estate trust company. In 2006, he founded 'Daol Asset Management,' a real estate specialized asset management company, gaining recognition as a real estate expert.

Meanwhile, Daol Investment & Securities is pushing forward with the sale of Daol Investment. This is interpreted as selling a key subsidiary to prepare for the liquidity crisis of the group, as the real estate project financing (PF) fund market has tightened due to the Legoland incident. Daol Investment is the major shareholder with a 52% stake owned by Daol Investment & Securities.