Incheon City announced on the 23rd that the sub-fund size of the local government-led startup investment fund, 'Incheon Big Wave Mo Fund,' has surpassed 1 trillion won.
Since 2021, the city has been establishing the Big Wave Mo Fund with the goal of investing 60 billion won over four years to foster venture and startup companies. After raising a fund worth 600 billion won within three years of the project’s launch last year, the city achieved its early target and exceeded 1 trillion won in scale earlier this month.
The Big Wave Mo Fund has invested a total of 42.6 billion won in 36 sub-funds that focus on Incheon’s key industries such as shared services, youth startups, semiconductors, and materials, parts, and equipment. Additionally, under the investment condition requiring at least three times the city’s contribution to be invested in companies based in Incheon, it secured investment funds worth approximately 121.3 billion won.
So far, 45 Incheon-based companies have successfully attracted a total investment of 44.5 billion won. As of the third quarter of this year, these companies’ sales increased by 6.84 billion won, and employment rose by 63 people.
Since the launch of the Big Wave Mo Fund project, the number of venture capital (VC) firms and accelerator companies (AC) in the Incheon area has increased to 2 and 17 respectively, and the number of operators for the private investment-led technology startup support program (TIPS) has expanded from 3 to 5.
An official from Incheon City stated, "Although the contributions to the Big Wave Mo Fund have been completed, we plan to attract foreign capital by expanding domestic and international companies as investors, starting with the first business agreement with the foreign-invested company Freeman Inc and the 'Global Top Ten Mo Fund.'"
He added, "We will do our best to encourage private investors to actively invest in Incheon companies so that unicorn companies can emerge in the region."
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