Korea to expand global venture fund to foster 1,000 leading startups

[Photo by MK DB]

The South Korean government will expand its global venture investment fund to 8 trillion won ($6.3 billion) next year and foster 1,000 start-ups that will lead the country’s transformation to a digital economy.

The plan was presented to President Yoon Suk-yeol during a policy briefing for next year by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on Tuesday.

To build an open start-up and venture ecosystem for future global unicorns, the government plans to expand global funds with a cumulative asset of 8 trillion won to support local startups’ advance into overseas markets, said SMEs and Startups Minister Lee Young.

The ministry will select more than 1,000 advanced technology-based startups over the next five years and conduct a project to provide extensive support to help them in technology commercialization, research and development and global market entry. The government will also set up funds of more than 200 billion won to invest in digital and bio-health startups, while increasing its technology credit guarantee to a maximum of 10 billion won.

In addition, the ministry will run a program to grant funds to private sector for deep tech startups focusing on digitalization of manufacturing sites. Under the scheme, when the private sector invests 1 billion won in advance, the government will match the investment of up to 1.2 billion won. For a high-risk and high-performance R&D projects, the government will invest up to 7 billion won when the private sector invests 2 billion won in advance.