GS Ventures Expands Investment Division with Additional Review Officers

Continuing to Grow Heo Jun-nyeong's Investment Management Headquarters
Recruiting AC and VC Professionals with STEM Backgrounds

GS Group's corporate venture capital (VC) GS Ventures is actively recruiting specialized investment personnel. This move is interpreted as an effort to strengthen capabilities by securing new talent amid an overall downturn in investment sentiment.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 24th, GS Ventures is currently hiring investment analysts. They are looking for candidates with a master's degree or higher in science and engineering fields who have experience as accelerators (AC) or venture capitalists (VC). Notably, they are also recruiting entry-level analysts. The application process is open to anyone with a bachelor's degree or higher.

Currently, GS Ventures' Investment Management Division is led by CEO Heo Jun-nyeong (GS Vice President), with analysts Hong Seok-hyun, formerly of LG Electronics, Yoon Se-hyun from the Royal Bank of Scotland, and Yoon Hyung-joon from Chosun Ilbo. Including two members from the Management Support Division, a total of six employees are working. With the planned addition of two or more personnel to the Investment Management Division, the team size is expected to increase to eight or more.

This contrasts with other venture capital firms that are not increasing investment personnel due to a cautious approach to investing. Recently, as venture capital firms face difficulties in fundraising, analysts are experiencing growing concerns. It is becoming common for some to consider moving to cash-rich corporate venture capital (CVC) firms before their funds dry up. In this atmosphere, there is keen interest in whether high-quality talent will move to GS Ventures.

GS is strengthening its investment capabilities by renaming its 'Business Support Team' to the 'Future Business Team.' Subsequently, it completed the corporate registration of GS Ventures as a 100% subsidiary CVC, signaling the start of full-scale investment activities. It also completed registration as a New Technology Business Financial Company (Shingisa) with the Financial Supervisory Service, preparing for investment operations.

Heo Tae-soo, Chairman of GS Group, has recently emphasized the 'New to Big' strategy to diversify future strategic businesses, including eco-friendly projects. The New to Big strategy aims to develop investment capabilities to create businesses different from existing ones. GS Ventures is following this strategy.

GS invests in domestic early-stage startups through GS Ventures and in North American cutting-edge technology startups through GS Futures, located in Silicon Valley, USA.

Since its launch last year, GS Ventures has secured a diverse portfolio, including ▲ SY Solution (alternative meat) ▲ MakeUs (music content) ▲ Mycel (eco-friendly leather) ▲ Revvit (shopping platform) ▲ AwesomeRay (miniature X-ray) ▲ GoPizza (single-serving pizza) ▲ EightTech (AI robots) ▲ SDT (industrial IoT solutions) ▲ Illimis Therapeutics (autoimmune disease treatment), among others.