‘Geumseong Baekjo VC’ Rising S Ventures Forms 2nd Blind Fund

Formation of 10 Billion KRW 'KSBJ-Rising Star No.2 Venture Investment Fund'
Geumseong Baekjo Housing, Construction, JS Global and Affiliates Participate as LPs

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Rising S Ventures, a venture capital (VC) firm affiliated with Geumseong Baekjo Housing, has successfully formed its second blind fund. It is being recognized for steadily expanding its presence in the market.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 5th, Rising S Ventures recently held the general meeting to establish the ‘KSBJ-Rising Star No. 2 Venture Investment Association’ with a total committed amount of approximately 10 billion KRW. The internal rate of return (IRR) is 5%, and the fund maturity is 7 years. The anchor limited partner (LP) is Geumseong Baekjo Housing, which invested 6.9 billion KRW of the total committed amount. Following that, Geumseong Baekjo Construction invested 1.5 billion KRW, and JS Global invested 1.5 billion KRW, among other affiliates. Rising S Ventures contributed 1% (100 million KRW) of the total as the general partner (GP) mandatory investment.

The lead fund manager is Director Jiyoung Jang. She graduated from Yonsei University with a degree in Architectural Engineering and earned a Master of Engineering from the Graduate School of Technology Management at KAIST. She has experience at Kumho Industrial, Yonsei University Technology Holding Company, the Agency for Defense Development, and Future Science and Technology Holdings. After joining Geumseong Baekjo, she planned the establishment of a specialized investment firm and founded and joined Rising S Ventures. She specializes in early-stage research and development technology commercialization, startup planning, and discovering and investing in technology startup ventures. Key operational personnel include Team Leader Jiyoon Yoo, formerly of LG Sangsa (now LX International) and Danal Investment Partners.

This fund is a series fund following the ‘KSBJ-Rising Star No. 1 Venture Investment Association (10 billion KRW)’ formed last year. Due to the high utilization rate of the No. 1 fund’s resources, a follow-up fund was raised. Through the No. 1 fund, they secured a diverse portfolio including InnoMaxin, Dain Medical Group, GTI Bioscience, SwitchOne, Teamwork, Oasis Business, Neurofit, Billio, AU, Skylabs, and Revest.

A Rising S Ventures official stated, “We plan to proceed with investments over this year and next year through this fund,” adding, “We will focus intensively on technology-based startups less than three years old.” They also mentioned, “After steadily expanding our scale, we plan to approach policy funds such as the Korea Fund of Funds.”

Rising S Ventures was launched in April 2021. After securing an accelerator license, it focused on early-stage investments through the KSBJ-Rising Star No. 1 Venture Investment Association. In October last year, it also planned and held ‘Synergy IR Day,’ the first demo day in the small-scale construction industry within Geumseong Baekjo.

Recently, it obtained a venture capital license. It is the only company registered as a venture investment company (venture capital firm) in the Daejeon region. Since Geumseong Baekjo is a construction company based in Daejeon, Rising S Ventures also has its headquarters there. It is expected to expand its investment activities centered on Daejeon and the Chungcheong region.

Meanwhile, the ‘S’ in Rising S represents the commitment to nurturing early-stage companies where startups become stars. It also symbolizes the swan of Geumseong Baekjo. The major shareholders of Rising S Ventures are Geumseong Baekjo Housing (50%), Geumseong Baekjo Construction (30%), and Daeseung Global (20%).

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