Hana Financial Group Hosts First Private Startup Competition... 3 Billion KRW Investment in 6 Companies

On the afternoon of the 16th, at D.CAMP in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Kim Jung-tae, Chairman of Hana Financial Group (center front row), is taking a commemorative photo with Kwon Dae-young, Head of the Financial Innovation Planning Division at the Financial Services Commission (fourth from the left in the front row), Kim Dong-hwan, CEO of Hana Ventures (second from the left in the front row), and startup representatives after a startup competition hosted by Hana Ventures. Photo by Hana Financial Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Hana Ventures, a corporate venture capital (CVC) under Hana Financial Group, announced on the 17th that it held the first private startup competition.

Hana Ventures held the competition the previous afternoon at D.CAMP in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, with the goal of growing early-stage companies into unicorns (startups valued at over 1 trillion KRW).

This competition was the first startup contest hosted by a private venture capital rather than a government agency, providing startups less than three years old with an opportunity to secure actual investments based solely on their people, technology, and business models.

Out of over 320 startups that applied, six companies operating in various fields such as healthcare, artificial intelligence (AI), proptech (real estate + technology), smart factory, drones, and commerce platforms were selected.

The event was broadcast live online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The grand prize was awarded to ‘Propwave,’ which operates a real estate investment platform. The excellence awards went to ‘Gentle Energy’ (smart factory solutions) and ‘Doctor Guide’ (health functional food sales service), while the merit awards were given to ‘Defy’ (anti-aging solution development), ‘Viewmagine’ (drone pipeline inspection solutions), and ‘Buildblock’ (overseas real estate platform).

Hana Ventures plans to invest a total of 3 billion KRW in these award-winning companies, ranging from 100 million KRW to a maximum of 1 billion KRW, and also announced plans for an additional 5 billion KRW investment.

Going forward, Hana Ventures intends to hold this competition regularly in the first and second halves of the year and will also operate startup nurturing support programs linked with Hana Financial affiliates.

Kim Jung-tae, Chairman of Hana Financial Group, stated, “Since the establishment of Hana Ventures in 2018, we have been striving to become a financial partner that grows together with startups. We have created funds for venture investments at the group level and have supported startups facing difficulties in raising investment by executing about 100 billion KRW in investments over the past year.”

He added, “Group companies will cooperate to provide financial solutions tailored to each stage of a company’s growth, including Hana Ventures’ equity investments, Hana Financial Investment’s initial public offerings (IPO), and Hana Bank’s credit support. Furthermore, we will actively support excellent companies to challenge the global stage based on Hana Financial’s global network of 216 offices in 24 countries.”

At the event, Kwon Dae-young, head of the Financial Innovation Planning Division at the Financial Services Commission, said, “The core of the government’s innovation growth policy is ‘startup’ and ‘digital innovation.’ We will speed up efforts at the government level to build a startup ecosystem and regulatory innovation to create a startup-friendly ecosystem, digital new deal, and activate the data economy.”

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