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Busan Metropolitan City Establishes Local Government’s First KRW 100 Billion Parent Fund for Two Consecutive Years… “Busan Innovation Scale-Up Venture Fund” Launch Ceremony Held!

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it held the launch ceremony of the “Busan Innovation Scale-Up Venture Fund” (hereinafter “Venture Fund”) today (28th) at 4 p.m. at the Busan City Hotel, officially commencing its operations.

This “Venture Fund” was established with the primary goal of supporting scale-up investment for Busan-based companies. Contributions came from Busan Metropolitan City (KRW 10 billion), the Fund of Funds (KRW 60 billion), BNK Busan Bank (KRW 20 billion), IBK Industrial Bank of Korea (KRW 10 billion), and Korea Venture Investment Corp. (KRW 1.1 billion), bringing the total to KRW 101.1 billion for the parent fund.

< Overview of the “Busan Innovation Scale-Up Venture Fund” Launch Ceremony >

• ●Date & Time: August 28, 2025 (Thursday), 16:00–17:20

• ●Venue: Convention Hall, 2nd floor, Busan City Hotel (19 Sinchon-ro, Yeonje-gu, Busan)

• ●Attendees: Seong Heui-yeob, Vice Mayor for Future Innovation of Busan Metropolitan City; Noh Yong-seok, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups; Noh Hae-dong, Head of Marine/IB Group at BNK Busan Bank; Kim In-tae, Vice President of IBK Industrial Bank of Korea; and Lee Dae-hee, CEO of Korea Venture Investment Corp.

At the event, Vice Mayor for Future Innovation Seong Heui-yeob, Vice Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups Noh Yong-seok, BNK Busan Bank Marine/IB Group Head Noh Hae-dong, IBK Industrial Bank Vice President Kim In-tae, and Korea Venture Investment Corp. CEO Lee Dae-hee gathered in Busan to officially declare the launch of the “Busan Innovation Scale-Up Venture Fund” parent fund.

Following the ceremony, Korea Venture Investment Corp., as the operator of the parent fund, hosted an investor briefing session with regional and metropolitan fund managers. The session aimed to provide participating investment firms with clear insights into fund operations and useful information on future investment strategies.

Meanwhile, this “Venture Fund” marks the first case in Korea where a local government has successfully established a parent fund of KRW 100 billion or more for two consecutive years, following the creation of the “Busan Future Growth Venture Fund” last year. The detailed investment plan for sub-funds will be finalized through an operations committee meeting in September.

Within this year, sub-funds totaling over KRW 200 billion will be formed, with a focus on investing at least KRW 70 billion in scaling up regional companies.

The sub-funds will target entrepreneurial-type small business owners (Lycon), advanced smart manufacturing companies, and companies in Busan’s nine strategic industries. In particular, a large-scale scale-up sub-fund of KRW 100 billion will be established separately and managed to help regional companies achieve growth and expansion.

Seong Heui-yeob, Vice Mayor for Future Innovation, stated, “By establishing a KRW 100 billion-scale parent fund for two consecutive years — the first such achievement among local governments — we have expanded the scale of regional investment. Moving forward, we will continue to create parent funds and do our utmost so that Busan may serve as a new growth engine in the corporate investment ecosystem of the southern region.”