KT Investment sets up $48.7M venture fund despite challenging market

KT Investment has secured major partners, including Korea Fund of Funds and Industrial Bank of Korea, for its largest ever single fund, which will focus on ventures in AI, robotics, and cloud computing.

KT Investment set up a 64.5-billion-won ($48.7 million) fund — the venture company's largest ever single fund — despite a challenging market situation.

KT, the firm's parent company, funneled 25 billion won into the fund. Other major investors include Korea Fund of Funds (KFoF) and Industrial Bank of Korea.

The establishment of the 64.5-billion-won fund came back in April after the Korea Venture Investment Corporation, which manages KFoF, selected KT Investment as a general partner for a KFoF investment project aimed at supporting youth startups.

KT Investment was also selected for the Seoul Metropolitan City’s scale-up funding project in July, and attracted investments from the Industrial Bank of Korea, Shinhan Asset Management, Seongnam Industry Promotion Agency and more.

With the addition of the latest youth startup venture fund, KT Investment now has 330 billion won in cumulative assets under management.

Major areas of focus will be AI, robotics and cloud computing.

The venture capital market, meanwhile, has been shrinking through the year, weighed down by base rate hikes, hawkish monetary policy and macroeconomic uncertainty. Total venture funding in Korea in the first half of this year, amounted to 4.44 trillion won, which is down 41.9 percent on-year.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]