SEOUL: The Korea Development Bank (KDB) will set up a 350 billion won ($305 million) fund with multinational venture capital firms to help Korean ventures advance into global markets, the state-run bank said Thursday.
“We are in talks with venture capital companies largely from the U.S., China and Japan to form a second Global Partnership Fund and the details will be announced early next month,” a KDB official told The Korea Times.
Korea’s two state-owned banks ― KDB and the Industrial Bank of Korea ― will finance the fund by injecting 90 billion won and 10 billion won, respectively, while the remainder will come from international venture capital companies, the official said.
“More than 50 percent of the fund capital will be spent on Korean venture firms which have a strong growth potential with their technology and business ideas, and that have a plan to seek business opportunities or ties with local peers in emerging and advanced countries” he said.
The official announcement on the establishment of the second fund is due on Dec. 1, KDB said in a statement. Last year, the state bank created the first Global Partnership Fund with a capital of 375.9 billion won together with investors from Korea, Hong Kong, the U.S. and the U.K.
Instead of just funneling funds into promising venture companies, KDB said it had stepped up efforts in recent years to create the environment and infrastructure needed for balanced growth in the venture ecosystem. KDB calls itself the country’s most advanced and biggest venture capital firm.
To help hopefuls attract needed capital, KDB has strengthened its efforts to connect them with potential investors at home and abroad. As a result, four venture startups have attracted investments worth 6 billion won and 13 others are under serious consideration for possible investment by individuals and companies, the statement said.
KDB holds various events annually to encourage university students and venture hopefuls to start a venture and select 20 venture startups a year to make a presentation about their business models to investors. Such events often lead to real investment, KDB said.
From 2009 through October 2015, a total of 338 companies went public and listed their shares on the tech-heavy KOSDAQ market in initial public offerings. Out of them, KDB invested in 61 companies which the bank says indicates “it is capable of selecting the right ones among venture hopefuls.”
