Hanwha Systems Forms 80 Billion KRW Venture Fund with Military Mutual Aid Association

Starting the Drive to Secure Military Technology Sovereignty

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-ho Kim] Korea's first defense industry venture investment fund, the 'Gungong-Hanwha Defense Venture Fund,' is launching.

Hanwha Systems announced on the 9th that it has established a venture fund worth a total of 80 billion KRW by investing 40 billion KRW each with the Military Mutual Aid Association, focusing on miltech (military technology) and the Fourth Industrial Revolution sectors.

The 80 billion KRW raised as a blind fund will be invested in promising domestic and international startups in fields urgently requiring global technological sovereignty, based on next-generation miltech core technologies for future battlefields in land, sea, air, space, and cyber domains. These fields include aerospace, UAM, AI, quantum computing, and cybersecurity. Hanwha Asset Management will serve as the fund manager (GP), executing investments in technology venture companies with proven business capabilities.

Hanwha Systems and the Military Mutual Aid Association plan to design investment strategies targeting excellent companies that can maximize synergy with Hanwha Systems' ongoing defense business as well as new business visions such as low-earth orbit satellite communications, UAM, and digital platform businesses, proceeding with equity investments and business cooperation.

Since last year, Hanwha Systems has been operating the open innovation program 'CONNECT:H' to discover defense technology innovation startups and the first in-house venture program in the defense industry called 'Frontier.' Hanwha Systems stated that their goal is to strengthen future innovation technology capabilities by discovering promising companies in new growth areas and expanding investments, thereby increasing the equity value of these companies to create a 'win-win' model.

Seong-cheol Uh, CEO of Hanwha Systems, said, “Through this venture fund, we expect spin-offs that apply defense technology to the market, spin-ons that apply innovative technology to the defense sector, and spin-ups where new business technologies are jointly applied to defense and the market to be rapidly pursued in parallel.” He added, “We aim to secure technological sovereignty that will be a 'game changer' to change the future battlefield landscape and serve as a catalyst to strengthen our national defense and future innovation technology capabilities.”

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