Designation of Private-Led Specialized Evaluation Agency for Venture Certification System

Designation of 9 Specialized Evaluation Agencies to Support the Venture Business Verification Committee's Operations

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Park Young-sun, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) announced on the 24th that it has designated nine specialized evaluation institutions to assess the technological and business feasibility of companies seeking venture certification.

The venture certification system will be completely revamped and implemented from February next year as a 'private-led venture certification system' decided by the Venture Certification Committee composed of private venture ecosystem experts. In June, the Ministry designated the Korea Venture Business Association as the venture certification institution to operate the Venture Certification Committee.

The newly designated specialized evaluation institutions will be entrusted by the Korea Venture Business Association, the venture certification institution, to evaluate the technological and business feasibility of companies seeking venture certification.

Currently, venture certification is conducted entirely by the Korea Venture Capital Association, Korea Technology Finance Corporation, and Korea SMEs and Startups Agency, including evaluation and issuance of certificates. Under the revamped certification system, specialized evaluation institutions will handle document review and on-site inspections, while the final deliberation and decision will be made by the Venture Certification Committee.

The current types of venture certification are ▲venture investment type ▲research and development type ▲guarantee/loan type. With the system reform, the 'guarantee/loan type' will be abolished and replaced by the 'innovation growth type' based on technological and business feasibility evaluations. To strengthen expertise for the newly established type, specialized evaluation institutions will be diversified.

To designate specialized evaluation institutions, the Ministry received applications from 49 institutions capable of technical evaluation based on legal grounds, of which 18 expressed willingness to participate. After evaluating technical evaluation performance, technical evaluation personnel, SME support capabilities, and regions available for on-site inspections, nine institutions suitable for the certification types were finally designated.

For the 'innovation growth type,' seven institutions capable of evaluating technological and business feasibility nationwide, including Korea Technology Finance Corporation, were designated. In particular, the Korea Invention Promotion Association, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Foundation of Agri. Tech. Commercialization & Transfer, and Research & Development Special Zone Promotion Foundation will evaluate companies in industries specialized in their respective expertise.

The 'research and development type' will evaluate business feasibility in addition to basic R&D quantitative indicators. Business feasibility evaluation will be handled by the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency and Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, which have nationwide sales networks and business evaluation capabilities.

For the 'venture investment type,' due to the specificity related to venture investment, the Korea Venture Capital Association, which is entrusted with duties under the Act on Promotion of Venture Investment, will remain as the qualification verification institution.

Lee Ok-hyung, head of the Venture Innovation Policy Division at the Ministry, stated, "The experience of specialized evaluation institutions, which have closely cooperated based on a high understanding of SMEs within the industry, is expected to greatly contribute to the venture certification system and the creation of the venture ecosystem."

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