South Korea-based accelerator network SparkLabs has launched a $50m fund called SparkLabs Ventures and has secured steel pipe producer Seah as an anchor investor, TechCrunch reported today.
Seah is one of two anchor investors for the fund, the other being state-owned financial services firm Korea Development Bank.
SparkLabs Ventures will focus on Korea-based startups developing consumer services, enterprise, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, hardware and financial technology, and will invest between $1m and $3m.
Brian Kang, who was managing director of Samsung Ventures America – part of Korea-headquartered electronics producer Samsung’s corporate venturing network – for almost 10 years to 2013, is managing partner of SparkLabs Ventures.
Kang told Tech in Asia the fund will invest at series A and B stage, and that it will consider linking up with startups that have gone through its accelerator. It will have a secondary focus on Southeast Asia.
“It also is a natural progression from our accelerators in the market,” Kang said. “We can become one of the investors for those graduates [of SparkLab’s accelerator programs] that already raised a seed round, but are looking for a series A.”
The fund’s other managing partner is Chris Koh, a co-founder and former vice-president of Korea-based mobile commerce marketplace Coupang.