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Busan Innovation Scale-up Venture Fund… Announcement of Recruitment for Sub-fund Managers for KRW 201.7 Billion Fund

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced the launch of the “Busan Innovation Scale-up Venture Fund Investment Project,” totaling KRW 201.7 billion.

The “Busan Innovation Scale-up Venture Fund” is designed with a focus on expanding the scope of investee companies (scale-up). By establishing a KRW 100 billion large-scale fund, the City plans to encourage participation in local company investment not only from regional investors but also from leading investment firms in the Seoul metropolitan area.

In addition, investment opportunities will be provided in regionally specialized fields such as the “Licon” sector and “Smart Advanced Manufacturing,” thereby contributing to the revitalization of the local economy. Once sub-fund managers are selected, the sub-funds will be established, and full-scale investment will begin.

The “Busan Innovation Scale-up Venture Fund” is a KRW 101.1 billion parent fund jointly invested by Busan Metropolitan City, Korea Fund of Funds, Busan Bank, and Industrial Bank of Korea. Through this call for sub-funds, a total of six funds amounting to over KRW 201.7 billion will be created.

• ●[Licon and Accelerator (AC) Sector] KRW 3.5 billion will be invested in the “Licon” sector, which supports early investment in entrepreneurial small businesses, and KRW 3.5 billion in the “Accelerator (AC)” sector for early-stage start-ups. A sub-fund exceeding KRW 10 billion will be formed, with more than KRW 7 billion invested in the local area.

• ●[Smart Advanced Manufacturing Sector] KRW 10 billion will be invested in the “Smart Advanced Manufacturing” sector to support the smart transformation of the region’s manufacturing-based industries, forming a sub-fund of over KRW 16.7 billion, with more than KRW 10 billion invested locally.

• ●[Venture Capital (VC) Sector] Focused on scale-up, the “Venture Capital (VC)” sector is divided into regional (KRW 25 billion), mid-sized (KRW 50 billion), and large-scale (KRW 100 billion) funds. A total of KRW 75 billion will be invested to form sub-funds exceeding KRW 175 billion, with more than KRW 45 billion allocated for the scale-up of local companies.

Additionally, KRW 8 billion of the parent fund will be directly invested by Korea Venture Investment, the parent fund manager, to provide 100% follow-up investment support to sub-fund investee companies in need of subsequent financing.

For all sectors, preferential points will be granted to management companies that are locally based, propose higher local investment ratios, or propose lower Fund of Funds investment ratios. The application deadline is October 29.

Detailed information on the recruitment notice can be found on the Korea Venture Investment website (https://www.kvic.or.kr/).

Moving forward, the City will continue to create parent funds and expand local investment through a dual-track strategy in which the Busan Startup Investment Agency discovers promising regional companies and links them with City funds.

Mayor Park Heong-joon stated, “The ‘Busan Innovation Scale-up Venture Fund’ is a fund focused on the scale-up of growth-stage local companies. With at least KRW 70 billion expected to be invested in the region, the fund will serve as a critical bridge enabling early-stage start-ups to advance to an Initial Public Offering (IPO). By creating region-led parent funds every year, we will establish KRW 2 trillion in start-up and venture business funds and build a KRW 600 billion investment ecosystem for Busan companies by 2030.”