April 18, 2024

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The amount of crowdfunding in South Korea gained about 37 percent in the first quarter of this year, data showed on April 11, after the government softened rules to help small and medium-sized firms raise more funds via crowdfunding.

According to the data by the Financial Services Commission, 43 companies raised a combined 11.4 billion won ($10 million) in the first quarter, up 37.3 percent from a quarter ago. 

From Jan. 15, the government increased the annual fundraising ceiling by a crowdfunding site to 1.5 billion won from 700 million won.

Last year, 178 firms raised 30.1 billion won via crowdfunding, compared with 27.8 billion won raised in 2017, according to the data.

Korea adopted the equity-style crowdfunding program in 2016, which enables startups and smaller firms to raise capital from a large number of small investors, typically via the internet and social media. 

Financial authorities have worked to promote crowdfunding by giving tax benefits to individual investors.

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)