POSCO's advance into bio sector accelerates with bio startup investments

[Source: POSCO Group]

South Korea’s top steelmaker POSCO Group is accelerating its advance into the bio sector with aggressive investments in bio startups on high expectations for great synergy between bio technologies and the group’s mainstay materials business.

According to industry insiders on Tuesday, POSCO Holdings affiliate POSCO International plans to invest billions of won (millions of dollars) into Bioapp, a local vaccine startup that develops Herbavac CSF Green Marker, a plant-derived vaccine against the swine fever virus.

POSCO has already invested a total of 3.3 billion won ($2.52 million) into Bioapp through its venture investment company POSCO Capital.

The latest investment by POSCO International in Bioapp signals the steel giant’s full-pledged advance into the bio business. POSCO International will set up a Bioapp-dedicated team to support the startup's inroads into the global market next year. The Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST) will also offer Bioapp a test center while POSCO E&C and POSCO ICT will help it build production facilities for eco-friendly biomaterials and pharmaceuticals.

POSCO aims to groom Bioapp as a unicorn startup with a revenue of 1 trillion won by 2030.

POSCO Holdings expects bio technology and fuel would create great synergy with POSCO Group’s other businesses because they can be applied to the development of eco-friendly materials and the production of chemical substances, respectively.

Another bio startup that has drawn POSCO’s attention is BioBricks with 3D bioprinting technologies such as bioink and artificial organs. POSCO will help fund its construction of manufacturing facilities through RIST and it is also currently reviewing possible investments through venture funds.

Those two bio companies currently have offices in CHANGeUP GROUND, POSCO’s startup incubator center that currently houses a total of 102 companies valued at 1.1 trillion won. Out of the total, around 30 percent are bio companies.

POSCO spent 83 billion won to open the center in July last year, and the venture capital funds at CHANGeUP GROUND amount to 1.4 trillion won, to which POSCO contributed 290 billion won.

Shares of POSCO Holdings traded up 2.02 percent at 227,500 won during Wednesday morning trade.

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