Korea Social Investment Establishes ESG Evaluation System... "Will Enhance Investment Expertise"

Jong-ik Lee, CEO of Korea Social Investment

Korea Social Investment announced on the 8th that it has established a 'Startup ESG Evaluation System' based on its experience in impact investment and nurturing. Through the Startup ESG Strategy Center, it plans to enhance expertise in startup evaluation and investment.

Korea Social Investment developed the startup ESG evaluation model from the perspectives of 'risk response' and 'opportunity discovery' to understand startups' ESG management readiness and performance.

The model was designed to reflect the size and industry of startups, aiming to comprehensively assess startups' ESG capabilities during investment screening. In particular, by developing the evaluation system in collaboration with the ESG Research Center at the Graduate School of Management, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, the reliability was enhanced.

Recently, ESG investment has been activated, and the utilization of ESG evaluation ratings in financial markets is increasing. Especially, as ESG management demands for partners due to supply chain due diligence are rapidly rising, ESG management and evaluation are becoming important not only for large corporations but also for small and medium enterprises and startups.

Korea Social Investment expects the evaluation system to provide startups with benefits such as △self-diagnosis through quantitative evaluation of ESG performance △issuance of ESG status verification reports to prepare for supply chain due diligence and attract investment △strengthening impact communication through measurement of ESG opportunities.

To conduct systematic and professional evaluation and investment review, the Startup ESG Strategy Center, which will be responsible for this, was newly established. Startup ESG evaluations will be conducted for startups that Korea Social Investment is nurturing or considering for investment.

Jong-ik Lee, CEO of Korea Social Investment, stated, "After reviewing domestic and international ESG and sustainable management-related corporate disclosures and evaluation standards, and objectively developing necessary evaluation indicators by startup industry and growth stage, we were able to establish our own evaluation system. We will pursue more systematic and professional ESG investment."

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