Final Selection of 900 Billion Won Venture Fund... Leading Investment Recovery

Ministry of SMEs and Startups '2024 First Regular Investment in the Mother Fund'
New Regional Innovation Venture Fund Established
Busan, Gyeongbuk·Jeonnam, Gyeongnam Selected... 300 Billion KRW Scale

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is leading the recovery of venture investment by investing 900 billion KRW in the mother fund.

On the 28th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that it had completed the selection of venture funds for the '2024 Mother Fund 1st Regular Investment' project. In this investment project, 446.3 billion KRW was invested to select 46 funds with a total venture fund size of 893.5 billion KRW. The selection was completed within the first quarter to ensure rapid formation of venture funds and supply of investment capital.

The 900 billion KRW scale venture funds selected in this investment project are based on the premise of being formed within three months, and most of the funds are expected to be formed within the first half of the year. Starting from the second half of the year, as these funds begin full-scale investment, it is expected to contribute to accelerating the recovery trend of venture investment.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The main selected sectors include the 'Rookie League' exclusively for new and small venture capital firms, with 10 funds selected totaling 211.3 billion KRW. This allocates 122 billion KRW, which is 13% of the 910 billion KRW 2024 Ministry of SMEs and Startups mother fund investment budget, to the Rookie League.

In particular, this investment project is the first since the complete reorganization of the Rookie League under the 'Measures to Revitalize Venture Investment,' which allows venture capital firms to directly propose challenging investment sectors. Funds proposing investment sectors differentiated from existing investment projects were selected.

Final operators were also selected for the newly established 'Regional Early-Stage Startup' and 'Lycon' sectors to activate investment in non-metropolitan areas. The 'Regional Early-Stage Startup Fund,' which focuses on investing in regional early-stage startups through startup planners and technology holding companies, selected 8 funds totaling 36.2 billion KRW.

The 'Lycon Fund' is a newly established sector exclusively for small business owners, created for the first time, inspired by the emergence of 'entrepreneurial small business owners' who create innovative business models and aim for growth in lifestyle culture sectors such as medical care, food, and housing. Five funds totaling 25 billion KRW were selected.

Additionally, the 'Early-Stage Startup Fund' and 'Scale-up & Mid-sized Leap Fund,' aimed at investment according to the growth stages of startups, were selected with sizes of 143.7 billion KRW and 125 billion KRW respectively. The 'Regional AC Secondary Fund' was also selected with a size of 18.5 billion KRW.

The 'Youth Startup Fund' with 65 billion KRW, 'Women Entrepreneurs Fund' with 20 billion KRW, and 'Re-leap Fund' with 50 billion KRW were also selected to continuously provide seed money in areas requiring policy support. The 'Impact Fund,' investing in companies pursuing both financial performance and social value realization, with 33.4 billion KRW, and the 'Materials, Parts, and Equipment Fund,' investing in excellent companies in the materials, parts, and equipment sector, with 55.5 billion KRW, were also established to continue investment in strategic sectors.

Furthermore, three new mother funds for the 'Regional Innovation Venture Fund' were selected in Busan, Gyeongbuk-Jeonnam (joint), and Gyeongnam. These funds are jointly established by the mother fund and local governments to focus investment on innovative companies located in the regions. The three newly selected mother funds will be formed with about 57.9 billion KRW invested by the mother fund, totaling approximately 210 billion KRW, and through these mother funds, about 300 billion KRW scale sub-funds are expected to be formed.

Oh Young-joo, Minister of SMEs and Startups, stated, “Last year, domestic venture investment showed a relatively favorable trend compared to the global market as quarterly performance continuously improved. The 0.9 trillion KRW scale venture funds selected through this investment project are expected to be formed within the first half of the year and begin full-scale investment in the second half, serving as a catalyst for this recovery trend in investment.”