Daegu City Raises 12 Billion KRW for ABB Venture Fund... Isu Group and Ecopro Participate

On the 17th, Daegu City held a business agreement ceremony for the "ABB Venture Fund Formation and Operation" to foster the ABB industry in Daegu at the Sanggyeok-dong government office, together with Isu Startup Investment, EcoPro Partners, and the Daegu Digital Innovation Promotion Agency.

This agreement ceremony was organized to establish a foundation for the regional investment ecosystem to efficiently form and operate the ABB venture fund and to foster the ABB industry through mutual cooperation among Daegu City, fund operators, and related organizations.

Sangyeok Government Complex, Daegu City.

The "ABB Venture Fund" (worth 12 billion KRW) is the second ABB industry-dedicated fund established in the region, following the "ABB Growth Fund" (worth 23.4 billion KRW) formed in the second half of 2022.

This fund was planned by Daegu City as a venture capital (VC) linked fund, and the operator was selected through a public offering in March. Four companies applied, and finally, "Isu Startup Investment" and "EcoPro Partners" were selected as joint operators.

These operators, headquartered in the metropolitan area, have each opened branches in Daegu to actively discover and support local companies and plan to actively attract promising ABB companies from outside the region.

Additionally, at the level of the fund investors, Isu Group and EcoPro Group plan various collaborations such as regional industry-academia-research cooperation personnel training projects and open innovation projects with local ABB companies, which is expected to greatly help revitalize the local ABB industry ecosystem in the future.

The fund's capital contributions are 4 billion KRW from Daegu City, 2.9 billion KRW from Isu Petasis Co., Ltd., headquartered in Daegu, 2.9 billion KRW from EcoPro Innovation Co., Ltd., rapidly growing in the secondary battery business, and 2.2 billion KRW from the operators and others.

Daegu City plans to contribute 1 billion KRW annually over four years starting in 2023, and 200% of the 4 billion KRW contributed by Daegu City, amounting to 8 billion KRW, is expected to be invested in about 10 ABB small and venture companies located in Daegu.

Daegu City announced a goal to gradually expand the ABB industry-dedicated fund to a total scale of over 100 billion KRW by 2026. Accordingly, in 2023, it plans to additionally establish one or two new funds, raising about 40 billion KRW in total for the year 2023.

This gradual expansion of fund formation is expected to help alleviate the financing difficulties faced by local ABB companies struggling with venture investment funds concentrated over 80% in the metropolitan area, poor regional investment infrastructure, and economic recession due to high interest rates and high inflation.

Lee Jong-hwa, Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs of Daegu City, said, "Through the continuous expansion of the ABB dedicated fund, we will do our best to play a crucial role as a catalyst for the growth of the local ABB industry and lead regional economic growth."

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