1 Trillion Won Follow-up Investment in 'Growth Sharing Funds'... Playing a Key Role as a Catalyst

Since 2008, 354 companies have attracted follow-up investments totaling 1.0025 trillion KRW

#. ABKO Co., Ltd. is a manufacturer of smart devices and computer peripherals, which attracted follow-up investments totaling 4.3 billion KRW after receiving growth-sharing fund support from the Small and Medium Business Corporation (SBC) in 2017. Last year, the company achieved sales of 84.3 billion KRW and an operating profit of 5.5 billion KRW, and successfully listed on the KOSDAQ market in December this year. The current corporate value stands at 327.5 billion KRW, representing more than a 15-fold growth compared to the time of SBC's investment.

The Small and Medium Business Corporation (Chairman Kim Hak-do, hereinafter SBC) announced on the 13th that as of November this year, the cumulative amount of follow-up investments attracted by 354 companies supported by the growth-sharing fund has surpassed 1 trillion KRW. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic this year, 49 supported companies succeeded in attracting a total of 184 billion KRW in follow-up investments. This accounts for 6% of the 2.8485 trillion KRW in new private investment funds up to September, indicating that SBC is playing a catalytic role in attracting follow-up investments.

The growth-sharing loan is a representative investment-financing hybrid financial project that supports companies with high IPO potential by evaluating their technological capabilities and future growth prospects, providing funds through convertible bonds (CB) and redeemable convertible preferred stocks (RCPS). Since 2008, SBC has supported a total of 704 companies with 605.4 billion KRW. SBC has enhanced the investment attractiveness of supported companies through various activities to help them successfully attract follow-up investments and lead their entry into direct financial markets.

First, SBC focused on improving the foundational strength of companies by linking support programs such as loans, diagnostics, training, and export marketing. Additionally, SBC regularly held investor relations (IR) events themed around new industry sectors or regionally based prospective unicorn companies, providing opportunities for investor networking and investment consultations. At IR events co-hosted with institutions such as the Korea Development Bank and KOTRA, 8 out of 44 participating companies succeeded in attracting follow-up investments totaling 58.3 billion KRW.

Collaboration with related organizations has also been strengthened. In June, SBC signed a multilateral memorandum of understanding with the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, Korea Venture Investment Corp., and the Korea Venture Capital Association to establish an ecosystem for the four major venture countries and formed an institutional consultative body for joint discovery and support of promising growth companies. Chairman Kim Hak-do stated, "SBC will continuously expand proactive investment support and value-up activities for promising growth companies and strengthen support for regionally based prospective unicorn companies in investment-deprived areas such as non-capital regions. Based on collaboration with related organizations, we will promote the value-up of excellent small and medium venture companies leading the post-COVID era and actively support innovative growth."

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