Stonebridge Ventures Forms 108 Billion KRW Venture Fund for 'Digital New Deal' Investment

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Jeong-su] Stonebridge Ventures announced on the 30th that it has successfully formed the 'Stonebridge DNA Innovation Growth Investment Fund (Stonebridge DNA)' worth 108 billion KRW.

Stonebridge Ventures will primarily invest the newly raised fund in industries related to the 'Digital New Deal.' The plan is to focus investments on companies with high growth potential in data and artificial intelligence (DATA/AI), network, system semiconductors, biohealthcare, and future vehicles. These sectors are expected to benefit from rapid changes in industrial landscapes and consumption patterns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the advent of the untact economy, deepening manufacturing-supply chain decoupling, and digitalization of traditional industries.

Stonebridge Ventures has set a goal to invest 20% of the fund amount within this year. Even before the fund's formation, it has completed pooling potential investee companies and plans to rapidly proceed with the investment process starting next week. The aim is to assist the venture industry through swift investment execution while actively cooperating with government policies promoting proactive investment support.

Stonebridge Ventures is a venture capital firm established in 2017 by separating the venture investment division from the private equity fund (PEF) management company Stonebridge Capital. Seung-woon Yoo, who previously served as a senior examiner at Japan's SoftBank and co-CEO of Kakao Ventures, was appointed CEO last year. This year, following the formation of the 'Stonebridge Lifestyle No.1 Investment Fund' and 'Stonebridge 2020 Venture Investment Fund,' the successful formation of 'Stonebridge DNA' has elevated the firm to a major player with assets under management (AUM) reaching 700 billion KRW.

LPs (Limited Partners) of Stonebridge DNA include the Korea Fund of Funds, Hana-KVIC Unicorn Fund, Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Fund, Korea Scientists and Engineers Mutual Aid Association, Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid Association, and financial companies. The fund plans to increase its size soon by adding private LPs such as financial institutions.

Many of the fund's LPs reportedly decided to invest after focusing on qualitative aspects such as Stonebridge Ventures' management of portfolio companies and value-up cases, as well as quantitative achievements including investment and exit performance and fund liquidation. Stonebridge Ventures attracted attention from major institutional investors by successfully liquidating the '2010 KIF-Stonebridge IT Specialized Investment Fund' and 'Stonebridge New Growth Investment Fund' in the first half of this year with internal rates of return (IRR) of 25.0% and 20.9%, respectively.

Seung-woon Yoo, CEO of Stonebridge Ventures, stated, "Overcoming the crisis caused by COVID-19 through the Digital New Deal has emerged as a national task. We will devote all efforts to discovering and nurturing companies that possess core technologies and can lead the global market."

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