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Busan Metropolitan City Achieves 4.5-Fold Return on Venture Investment … Mayor Park Heong-joon: “We Will Focus on Expanding Investment Opportunities for Local Companies”

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Busan Metropolitan City, led by Mayor Park Heong-joon, announced that a venture investment association established with City funding in 2015 is approaching liquidation after recording substantial returns, signaling the full-scale activation of a virtuous cycle in regional venture investment.

The City stated that the Stonebridge Innovation Quarter Investment Association (managed by Stonebridge Ventures), formed in 2015, is scheduled for liquidation in October 2026 and is expected to generate returns exceeding 4.5 times the original investment.

The association was established with a total fund size of KRW 31 billion (KRW 10 billion from Busan Metropolitan City, KRW 10 billion from Korea Growth Investment Corporation, KRW 10 billion from Woori Home Shopping, and KRW 1 billion from Stonebridge Ventures). Of the KRW 31 billion, KRW 27.9 billion has already been distributed. Busan Metropolitan City has recovered KRW 9 billion to date and is expected to recover approximately KRW 35 billion in total within 2026. This represents a multiple of approximately 4.5 times the original principal and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 15.18 percent, based on the current and projected share prices of portfolio companies.

The key drivers behind this performance include GoBioLab, an investee company whose exit was completed in 2021, and LIVESMED, which was listed on KOSDAQ in 2025 and is currently undergoing exit procedures.

GoBioLab, a biotechnology company, generated a recovery of KRW 19.22 billion from an initial investment of KRW 1.99 billion, achieving a multiple of approximately 9.6 times. LIVESMED, a medical device company, recovered KRW 62.72 billion from an investment of KRW 4.28 billion, currently recording a multiple of 14.6 times and leading the overall fund performance.

As fund recovery performance continues to expand around companies with outstanding investment results, growth among local enterprises is also anticipated.

TAU Medical, a Busan-based company, is developing a medical device for the treatment of tricuspid regurgitation, a type of cardiovascular disease. The company is currently conducting a confirmatory clinical trial with completion targeted for the first half of 2026 and is also undertaking exploratory clinical trials in major countries including Australia, India, Japan, and Germany.

Based on its technological capabilities and clinical progress, the company is currently recognized with a corporate valuation of approximately KRW 200 billion and is attracting pre-IPO equity investment. It aims to be listed on KOSDAQ in the first half of 2027, marking its entry into a full-scale growth phase.

The City assessed that this large-scale recovery marks the beginning of a fully operational virtuous cycle in venture investment. It plans to utilize the recovered capital to participate in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ Regional Growth Fund initiative and to once again pursue the creation of a KRW 100 billion mother fund, following the Future Growth Fund and the Regional Scale-up Venture Fund. Through continued fund formation until 2030, the City aims to build a KRW 2 trillion venture investment ecosystem and increase the proportion of venture investment in Busan to the level of its Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP), 4.7 percent.

Mayor Park Heong-joon stated, “This recovery performance demonstrates that a structure in which the public sector provides capital and the private sector manages it professionally can lead to significant returns. Based on the secured financial resources, we will expand investment opportunities for local companies and establish a virtuous cycle system linking fund formation, investment, and follow-up support to further advance the regional startup ecosystem.”