The South Korea government’s Small & Medium Business Administration (SMBA) has signed an agreement with Kakao to create the ‘Kakao Young Entrepreneur Fund’, which is worth an initial KRW30bn ($27m), according to Korea technology news provider, ET News.
The fund will be largely invested in start-ups specialising in mobile technology, online software applications and the broader ICT sector. However, the social element of the fund is the fact that investments will be geared for the next generation of South Korean entrepreneurs in an effort to support job creation. Specifically, founders aged under 40 with less than three years of experience will be the ideal target investment with more than half of employees aged under 30, according to the ET News report.
However, other corporate venturing units outside of the country also have their eye on South Korea start-up investment opportunities. Last month, CyberAgent Ventures, the Japan corporate venturing unit of eponymous CyberAgent, announced a partnership with BeSuccess, the front-running tech media and global launch platform for the tech start-up ‘ecosystem’ in South Korea. The alliance will help CyberAgent Ventures to enhance its reach to more promising Korean start-ups. CyberAgent Ventures believes that the partnership with BeSuccess will add unique value to the Korean Internet start-up community and will result in more opportunities to invest in promising start-ups there.