830,462 Venture Company Employees in 2021... 2.1% Increase Compared to Previous Year

Announcement of the 2021 Detailed Survey Results on Venture Companies

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] As of 2021, the total employment in venture companies was recorded at 834,627 people, marking a 2.1% increase compared to the previous year.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (Minister Lee Young) announced on the 29th the results of the "Detailed Survey on Venture Companies," which analyzed the management performance, employment, research and development (R&D), and overseas expansion of 37,686 venture companies as of the end of 2021.

The total number of employees in venture companies as of the end of 2021, 834,627, increased by 17,330 compared to 817,297 employees employed by 39,101 venture companies at the end of 2020. This number is about 110,000 more than the total employment of the four major conglomerates, which is 720,000, indicating that venture companies play an important role in the domestic employment market. The average number of employees per company also increased by 5.7% from the previous year to 22.1.

The total sales of venture companies in 2021 amounted to 223 trillion KRW, a 7.8% increase from the previous year, and the average sales per company were 5.919 billion KRW, showing an 11.9% increase compared to the previous year. The total sales of venture companies rank second in the business sector and have maintained this position following Samsung since 2010.

The total operating profit of venture companies was 9.91 trillion KRW, a 52.1% increase from the previous year, and the total net profit was 6.46 trillion KRW, a 104.1% increase compared to the previous year. The average operating profit per company was 263 million KRW, up 57.5% from the previous year, and the average net profit per company was 171 million KRW, up 111.1% from the previous year.

The R&D expenditure ratio to sales for venture companies was 3.2%, which is 1.9 times that of large companies, 3.2 times that of mid-sized companies, and 4.6 times that of small companies. This indicates that venture companies are actively engaged in technology development activities compared to other business groups. The total intellectual property rights held by venture companies amounted to approximately 177,675, accounting for about 30% of domestic intellectual property rights. Additionally, 59.5% of venture companies had affiliated research institutes, and 11.8% of venture companies self-assessed that they secured unique global technologies related to their main products or services.

When classifying venture companies into the top 10 industries, 'Food/Beverage/Textile/Non-metal/Other Manufacturing' accounted for 20.2%, 'Machinery/Automobile/Metal' 16.6%, and 'Wholesale/Retail/R&D/Other Services' 13.7%, in that order. The average business age of venture companies was 10.6 years, with 47.2% having a business age between 4 and 10 years, followed by 26.9% between 11 and 20 years, and 13.5% under 3 years. Regionally, 59.9% were located in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Minister Lee Young stated, "Although the total number of venture companies decreased due to the system reform where the Venture Company Verification Committee, centered on private experts, determines whether a company qualifies as a venture company, excellent companies in terms of sales and employment were selected as venture companies." He added, "Since funding is cited as the biggest management difficulty felt by venture companies, we will expand support such as private-led venture investment and global accelerating in the future."

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