Bio Association Launches Investment Support Platform 'Venture Playground'

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The Korea Bio Association announced on the 20th that it will launch a platform called 'Venture Playground' to create a virtuous investment ecosystem in the bio venture industry. The association explained that the new bio venture investment matching platform was started to resolve difficulties in the bio venture ecosystem, such as the recently increased barriers to listing, resulting investment fund shortages, and challenges in fund recovery.

Venture Playground embodies the idea of creating a stage where bio companies, which require significant early-stage funds before commercialization such as research & development (R&D) and clinical costs, can come together with various investors in a playground of 'collaboration and coexistence,' enabling them to become stronger companies through free research and investment.

While previous bio venture investment programs operated by the association mainly involved financial investors (FI) as the primary investors, Venture Playground will operate programs focusing more on the demands of not only FIs but also strategic investors (SI) and overseas fund managers. Whereas venture capital (VC) participation was predominant before, now the program is classified by series and fields such as early startup, Series A, B, C, Pre-IPO, and overseas investment. Subsequently, investment banks (IB), private equity (PE) as FIs, as well as SIs and overseas fund managers will participate as customized investment entities to activate a sustainable virtuous cycle structure for the entire bio investment ecosystem.

Lee Seung-gyu, Vice Chairman of the Korea Bio Association, said, “We hope that Venture Playground, where bio entrepreneurs and strategic investors can meet in one place, will become a catalyst for the advancement of production and investment. The association will also play a hub role between bio entrepreneurs and strategic investors through two-way communication.”

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