Wadiz Partners Selected as Private Operator for 'LIPSⅡ'

Third Year as Lead Institution for 'Lips 1'
Selected for 'Lips 2,' Recognized as a LICORN-Focused Venture Capital Firm

Wadiz's investment-specialized subsidiary, Wadiz Partners, has been selected as the private operator for the '2025 Innovative Small Business Investment Linkage Support Project (LIPS II, Lips 2),' accelerating support for nurturing emerging brands in the lifestyle sector.

On the 27th, Wadiz announced, "Following Wadiz Partners' selection as the lead institution for Lips 1 in 2023, it has now been chosen as the private operator for Lips 2, recognizing it as a venture investment firm specialized in fostering entrepreneurial small businesses in the LICORN sector."

Lips 2 is a program under the Small Enterprise and Market Service of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, where designated private investors make pre-investments in promising small businesses and recommend them; then the Ministry matches commercialization funds. Management funds are supported up to three times the private investment, with a limit of 200 million KRW. This year, the support scale is up to 300 companies.

Since 2023, Wadiz Partners has been operating the private investment-linked matching loan (LIPS I, Lips 1) project as the lead institution for three years. Lips 1 is a program where private investors' pre-investments are matched with policy funds up to five times the investment, with a limit of 500 million KRW for small business enterprises. This year's budget is approximately 40 billion KRW.

Additionally, Wadiz Partners jointly launched the 'LICORN Fund' with Lotte Homeshopping last year and plans to focus investments and nurturing on lifestyle and local brands with high growth potential as the fund manager. Wadiz Partners was selected as the first general partner (GP) of the newly established LICORN Fund by the Korea Fund of Funds last year.

The 20 emerging brands selected for the brand nurturing program 'Next Brand,' operated by Wadiz Partners, are experiencing continuous growth, with their 2024 sales expected to reach 41 billion KRW, a 45% increase compared to the previous year.

Sogangseop, CEO of Wadiz Partners, stated, "With the selection as the private operator for Lips 2, promising companies that received investments from Wadiz Partners are expected to secure operational funds to focus on innovative product development and content research." He added, "Especially this year, through Wadiz Global Service, which will launch products jointly developed with Next Brand in the first half of the year, we plan to directly enter overseas markets, strengthening our role as a growth partner for emerging brands."