Ministry of Science and ICT Establishes 50 Billion KRW 'Metaverse Fund'

300 Billion KRW from Government Investment, Balance from Private Investment
Supporting Growth of SMEs and Ventures in the Metaverse Sector
Announcement Proposal Submission Online from April 15 to 30

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 18th through Korea Venture Investment's 'Notice of the March 2024 Special Fund Contribution Plan for the Mother Fund' that it will open a public offering for investment management companies to establish and operate a 'Metaverse Fund' worth 50 billion KRW.

The Metaverse Fund is a fund supporting small and venture companies in the metaverse (extended virtual world) sector. It expands on the existing digital content fund and has been investing since 2022 in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to help small and venture companies in the metaverse sector expand their business areas and scale.

Recently, the metaverse has been spreading and diffusing into various industrial fields by converging with new digital technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI). The competition among global big tech companies to launch extended reality (XR) devices is also accelerating the development of the global metaverse ecosystem. Although active investment in this sector is necessary, private investment in the ICT sector has been decreasing due to recent global monetary tightening.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to promote aggressive investment using government funds to support the systematic growth of domestic small and venture companies in the metaverse sector and to expand the global advancement of promising export companies. To support core companies, investment in the existing M&A sector will continue, and future investments will expand to overseas advancement sectors reflecting the continuous growth potential of the global metaverse market and government policy directions for export activation.

In particular, of the 50 billion KRW Metaverse Fund this year, 30 billion KRW of government contributions will be reinvested from the recovered funds of the digital content fund, which does not involve new budget input. The difference will be made up by private investment.

Hwang Gyu-cheol, Director of Software Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, “Through aggressive financial support from the Metaverse Fund, we expect the growth opportunities for domestic metaverse small and venture companies to expand and eventually lead to global market entry.”

Proposals for the announcement will be accepted online from 10:00 AM on the 15th of next month until 2:00 PM on the 30th of the same month. Detailed announcement information can be found on the Korea Venture Investment website.