'Venture 100 Billion Won Companies' Increase by 5.1%... Total Sales Reach 140 Trillion Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Junhyung Lee] The number of 'Venture 100 Billion Won Companies'?companies with sales exceeding 100 billion won in 2019?reached 617, a 5.1% increase compared to the previous year. The total sales of these companies amounted to approximately 140 trillion won.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced the results of the '2020 Venture 100 Billion Won Companies Survey' on the 25th, analyzing sales, export status, employment, and industrial property rights of 617 venture companies as of the end of 2019.

According to the survey, 62 companies newly entered the Venture 100 Billion Won Companies category by achieving sales of 100 billion won for the first time in 2019, while 32 companies were excluded. The total sales of the 617 venture companies increased by 4.6% (6.1284 trillion won) compared to the previous year, reaching about 140 trillion won, ranking 4th in the business sector.

The number of employees in these companies rose by 2.7% (6,075 people) from the previous year to 231,497, showing an employment effect equivalent to the 2nd largest in the business sector. For example, Yanolja, a leisure platform newly entering the Venture 100 Billion Won Companies, employed 786 people in 2019, an increase of 89.9% (372 people) compared to the previous year.

Exports by Venture 100 Billion Won Companies also increased. In 2019, the total export amount of these companies rose by about 8% (2.2346 trillion won) to 30 trillion won, accounting for 5% of the total domestic export volume (597.6 trillion won). Considering that only 494 of these companies are exporters, which is just 0.5% of the 99,126 domestic export companies, this is a remarkable achievement.

The ratio of research and development (R&D) expenditure to sales was also higher than that of large corporations. In 2019, the R&D-to-sales ratio of these companies was 2.8%, which is 1.7% higher than large corporations and 0.7% higher than small and medium enterprises. Notably, the top five companies with the highest R&D-to-sales ratios invested an average of 27.8% of their sales in R&D, dedicating more than a quarter of their sales to research and development.

Additionally, Venture 100 Billion Won Companies held 63,119 industrial property rights. This accounts for 23.1% of the 273,725 domestic industrial property rights, averaging 102.3 industrial property rights per company.

Due to these achievements, the investment attraction rate of Venture 100 Billion Won Companies reached 40.3%. The total amount of investment attracted was about 1.9 trillion won, with an average investment of 7.6 billion won per company. Furthermore, companies that received investment showed superior performance in employment and financial results, with a net profit margin approximately three times higher relative to sales compared to companies that did not receive investment.

Park Yongsun, Venture Innovation Policy official at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "This survey confirmed that Venture 100 Billion Won Companies play a pivotal role in supporting the Korean economy." He added, "We plan to focus on creating a startup venture ecosystem where startups can grow into Venture 100 Billion Won Companies and unicorn companies by introducing private venture certification systems and other measures."

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