Venture capital investment in S. Korea hits record high of $4bn as of Aug

Venture capital investment in South Korea exceeded last year¡¯s total as of August thanks to ample liquidity and an improved business environment for startups.

According to data released by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on Tuesday, the value of venture capital funding amounted to 4.62 trillion won ($3.9 billion) from January to August, surpassing the previous highest record of 4.30 trillion won for full 2020.

Venture capital investment topped 3 trillion won by the end of June, and more than 1.4 trillion won was poured into venture businesses in just two months of July and August. That can be translated into an average of 577 billion won per month and 19 billion won per day. The number of investment cases and funded companies totaled 3,395 and 1,588, respectively, as of August, the largest in history.

Top three industries that attracted the most venture capital finance from January to August were ICT, bio and medical, and retail and service. They accounted for 76 percent of total venture capital funding in Korea.

The ICT service and medical sectors drew more than 1 trillion won together. Funding for the ICT service and retail and service industries more than doubled compared to that for the same period last year. Investments for game companies also surged, according to the data. Venture funds for the online and contactless business sectors doubled, and the number of investee companies grew about 30 percent.

Follow-up investment reached 3.36 trillion won during the first eight months. The proportion of cumulative follow-up investment in August increased steadily from 55 percent in 2017 to 72.7 percent this year.

A total of 92 companies bagged more than 10 billion won in accumulated funding for each as of the end of August, higher than 75 in the same period last year. Among them, 10 startups drew more than 30 billion won, respectively.

Venture fund assets amounted to 3.95 trillion won from January to August, growing by more than 1 trillion won from the same period last year. Funding from private investors rose 60 percent on year to 2.87 trillion won.

[¨Ï Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]