Korea Technology Finance Corporation Designated as the 'No.1 Venture Business Support Specialized Institution'

Dedicated Execution of Venture Business Growth Promotion Support Project

The Korea Technology Finance Corporation (Kibo) announced on the 3rd that it has been designated as the "No. 1 Venture Business Support Specialized Institution" by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. A Venture Business Support Specialized Institution is an organization that systematically carries out venture business growth promotion support projects and is designated by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups among institutions, corporations, or organizations equipped with ▲professional personnel with relevant experience ▲dedicated organizations capable of performing support projects ▲facilities necessary for carrying out support projects.

Following the enforcement of the revised "Special Act on the Promotion of Venture Businesses" in July, which was amended in January this year, Kibo submitted an application and, after undergoing the Ministry's qualification review process, was finally designated as a specialized institution on the 27th of last month.

Since its establishment in 1989, Kibo has secured capabilities in technology evaluation and policy support by providing guarantees to SMEs and startups, achieving cumulative guarantee support of 473 trillion KRW and conducting 860,000 technology evaluations as of the end of June this year. It also has experience in over one million corporate consultations and on-site inspections through its long-accumulated intangible asset evaluation system.

In addition, to scale up SMEs and startups, Kibo is expanding various policy supports and has discovered about 20,000 venture companies, which account for more than half of all venture businesses, providing preferential guarantee support and supplying technology guarantees worth approximately 7.7 trillion KRW to about 10,000 venture companies.

Going forward, Kibo plans to carry out various support projects together with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, including ▲venture business discovery ▲commercialization promotion ▲policy development tasks, and will take charge of operating a stable and systematic venture business support system while expanding its policy role in venture business support.

Kim Jong-ho, Chairman of Kibo, said, “Kibo has been a reliable pillar for SMEs and startups for the past 35 years, growing together with them. Taking this designation as a Venture Business Support Specialized Institution as an opportunity, we will further solidify Kibo’s role in the venture ecosystem and expand systematic nurturing plans to accelerate the scale-up and global expansion of venture companies.”