April 20, 2024

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A private sector-led venture capital council was launched on June 4 to provide a more accurate blueprint for the industry, along with the release of a new set of investment data that shows the market is more active than that potrayed by government statistics.
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Led by the Korea Venture Capital Association the organization is represented by eight VC firms.

“The government has been collating venture investment-related statistics, but recently various investment bodies have emerged, making it difficult to get an accurate picture of the industry as a whole,” said KVCA Managing Director Kim Jong-sol.

The total venture investment in 2018 stood at 6.5 trillion won (US$5.49 billion) according to the new organization, almost 90 percent more than the statistics of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. As per the ministry the tally in 2018 was a record high of 3.42 trillion won.

The total value of new venture investment funds formed in 2018 stood at 8.29 trillion won, compared with the ministry’s data of 4.76 trillion won.

“The new data shows Korea’s venture investments take up 0.36 percent of the gross domestic product in 2018, compared with the ministry’s figure of 0.19 percent,” Kim said. “This is still less than 0.64 percent in the US but is more than China’s 0.26 percent,” he added.

The gap between the two sets of data is due to the inclusion of new technology venture investment associations and companies. It also adds organizations that have no obligation to report their investments, such as policy banks to the government and private equity funds focusing on investing in startups.

The eight firms participating in the VC council include KVCA, Credit Finance Association, Financial Service Supervisory, Korea Development Bank, Industrial Bank of Korea, Korea Technology Finance Corp., Korea Credit Guarantee Fund and Agricultural Policy Insurance and Finance Service.

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)