Kibo Focuses Capabilities on Fostering System Semiconductor Companies

Listening to On-site Visit Difficulties
Establishing Semiconductor Technology Evaluation System
Active Support for Related Companies

On the 17th, the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (Kibo) announced that it visited Iron Device, a system semiconductor venture company, together with Kim Bong-deok, Venture Policy Officer of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, to listen to on-site difficulties and review support policies.

Iron Device is a system semiconductor fabless company founded in 2008 by CEO Park Ki-tae, a master's graduate from Seoul National University’s Department of Electrical Engineering, along with personnel from Samsung Electronics and Fairchild Semiconductor. Since its establishment, Kibo has supported the company’s growth into a core semiconductor firm by providing technology startup guarantees and commercialization R&D guarantees. Based on this, Iron Device is currently undergoing the process of listing on KOSDAQ through a technology-specialized IPO.

Kim Bong-deok, Director of Venture Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and employees of Kibo are visiting the system semiconductor company Iron Device to listen to their difficulties.

To support the growth of system semiconductor companies, Kibo newly established a technology value evaluation system for the system semiconductor sector last June, and based on this, plans to concentrate approximately 200 billion KRW worth of guarantees in the semiconductor field this year. In particular, the system semiconductor technology value evaluation is expected to create synergy with semiconductor industry development policies and financial support by contributing to the enhancement of appropriate value assessments for fabless and chipless (semiconductor IP) companies through technology analysis reflecting the characteristics of the industrial structure and consultations with field experts.

The on-site visit included Kim Hyun, Director of the Central Technology Evaluation Institute, who is in charge of Kibo’s advanced technology value evaluation tasks, and experts who participated in the development of the system semiconductor evaluation model. There was an explanation of the new evaluation system and Kibo’s support programs for semiconductor companies. Kim Jong-ho, Chairman of Kibo, stated, “Kibo has accumulated various evaluation cases for the technologies held by fabless and chipless companies and is strengthening guarantee support through the advancement of technology value evaluation,” adding, “We will continue to effectively support technology development and commercialization of promising SMEs and venture companies in the system semiconductor industry with excellent technologies.”