Belgium-based chemicals group Solvay has provided half the money for a venture capital fund being raised to back nascent advanced materials companies.
Solvay has provided €13m ($17.9m) for the Korea Advanced Materials Fund. The rest of the money is being committed by Korea Venture Investment Corp (KVIC), a government-backed fund of funds with $1.5bn of assets under management, and AJU IB Investment (formerly known as Kibo Technology Advancing Capital).
AJU IB Investment is a corporate venturing subsidiary of Korea-based construction conglomerate AJU Group and will manage the new materials fund that will focus on renewable energy, printed electronics, clean technologies and green chemistry.
The fund is expected to last for eight years.
Leopold Demiddeleer, senior executive vice president for Future Businesses at Solvay, said: "Solvay brings its know-how as industrial company and its global business network to the Korean technology fund.
"This participation is in line with our approach to set up partnerships and take stakes in consortia with promising start-ups and research organizations and allows us to extend our reach to promising Korean technology start-ups."
Solvay has previously committed as a limited partner to venture capital firms Conduit Ventures, Pangaea, Capricorn Cleantech Fund and directly invested in organic electronics companies Plextronics and Polyera, fuel cell developer ACAL
Energy and hydrogen storage developer Amminex.
Jung-Kyoo Yang, chief executive of AJU IB Investment, said: "Korea has been successful in joining the leading group of the world’s high technology countries, and eagerly built up new technology development capabilities. We are very pleased to partner with Solvay and we think our partnership will offer a multiplying effect on growth of Korean companies."