POSCO Leads the Creation of a Venture Ecosystem

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon] POSCO is taking the lead in creating a venture ecosystem by establishing a venture platform and fostering in-house ventures. Through this, the company aims not only to contribute to local job creation but also to provide new growth opportunities for its employees and cultivate a challenging and creative organizational culture.

The 'POSCO Venture Platform' is a program that creates a 'Venture Valley' where startups and venture companies can organically engage in research, investment attraction, and technology exchange, and establishes a 'Venture Fund' to invest in promising domestic and international technology ventures. The plan is to invest a total of 1 trillion KRW by 2024, including 200 billion KRW for the creation of the 'Venture Valley' and 800 billion KRW for the 'Venture Fund.'

POSCO plans to implement innovative 'industry-academia-research policies' by establishing new departments at POSTECH to nurture talent needed for future industries, promoting technology development related to the group's new growth areas at the Pohang Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST), and setting up a convergence research institute where POSTECH and RIST can collaborate on research.

Along with this, POSCO will invest 200 billion KRW by 2022 to build infrastructure for the Venture Valley, including the Pohang Incubating Center, Gwangyang Knowledge Industry Center, additional installation of beamlines at the Pohang Light Source accelerator, and the establishment of a data center.

Furthermore, POSCO will focus the Venture Valley on promising new business areas such as ▲materials, energy, and environmental research based on the 3rd generation accelerator, ▲bio and new drug development based on the 4th generation accelerator, and ▲smart city and smart factory development projects, nurturing Pohang, Gwangyang, and other areas as R&D hubs for venture companies.

The venture fund, in which POSCO participates as a fund contributor, plans to be established and operated on a scale of 2 trillion KRW by 2024, including 800 billion KRW from POSCO's investment and 1.2 trillion KRW from external investment attraction.

A POSCO official stated, "POSCO plans to continue operating win-win programs to discover renowned venture companies," adding, "We will take the lead in creating a healthy and vibrant industrial ecosystem through exchanges between large, medium, and small enterprises and startups."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.