POSCO Establishes Korea's First Venture Investment Association 'IMP No.1 Fund'

Startup Planner POSTECH Holdings Takes Charge of Fund Management

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO established Korea's first venture investment association formed by accelerators, the 'IMP (Idea Market Place) No. 1 Fund,' on the 7th.

The 'IMP No. 1 Fund' is an exclusive fund for venture companies selected through POSCO's unique venture discovery and nurturing program, Idea Market Place, with a total scale of 5.1 billion KRW.

The fund management is entrusted to POSTECH Holdings, the top-level accelerator in Korea with excellent capabilities in investing in, nurturing, and attracting follow-up investments for venture companies. Since POSTECH Holdings participates in the selection, nurturing, and mentoring of venture companies applying to Idea Market Place, and now can manage investments in an integrated manner, it is expected to focus more on the growth of venture companies.

Additionally, POSCO plans to support the mid- to long-term growth of venture companies by providing technology and research equipment owned by POSTECH and offering startup spaces such as the incubating center Seoul Change Up Ground. Promising venture companies will be incorporated into the POSCO Group and nurtured as new growth businesses.

The IMP No. 1 Fund is the first case following the 'Venture Investment Act' implemented in August to allow accelerators to register venture investment associations to enhance investor autonomy and expand the venture ecosystem. When accelerators form venture investment associations instead of personal investment associations, it becomes easier to recruit corporate investors, investment autonomy is expanded, and various venture investment portfolios can be composed.

Meanwhile, POSCO has been operating the 'POSCO Idea Market Place' since 2011. Over the past 10 years, it has invested 17.6 billion KRW in a total of 102 companies and is recognized as Korea's top-level venture company discovery and nurturing program. Previously, venture companies were selected and nurtured before deciding on investment, but from this year, the process has been improved to decide on investment at the selection stage to preempt promising venture companies and focus on the growth of invested companies.

Also, in July, POSCO opened 'Change Up Ground,' a public-private cooperative incubating center, at TIPS TOWN on Yeoksam-ro, Gangnam-gu, becoming the first private company to lead the establishment of startup infrastructure centered on the private sector.

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