Chairman Byunghwan Kim Visits Silicon Valley: Seeking Ways to Build a Mature Venture Ecosystem

Business Trip to Silicon Valley on the 23rd and 24th
Discussions on Fostering Domestic Innovative Companies and Developing the Venture Market

On the 23rd (local time), Byunghwan Kim, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, attended the KDB Industrial Bank Next Round 2025 event held at the startup accelerator Plug and Play Tech Center located in Silicon Valley, USA. After delivering a congratulatory speech, he took a commemorative photo with the attendees. Photo by Financial Services Commission.

Byunghwan Kim, Chairman of the Financial Services Commission, visited Silicon Valley in the United States to discuss policy support measures for fostering domestic innovative companies and developing the venture market.

The Financial Services Commission announced on the 27th that Chairman Kim visited Silicon Valley on the 23rd and attended the KDB Next Round event. KDB Next Round is the largest venture platform in Korea, connecting startups and venture capitalists (VCs) to support innovative companies.

Chairman Kim stated, "Through the global rounds, we have been able to create success stories such as Rebellions and Amoji," and added, "At today's third Silicon Valley round, we expect even greater achievements." Addressing global investors, he said, "I trust that you will recognize the growth potential of Korean venture companies, which are full of passion and a spirit of innovation," and continued, "I hope that a close network will be formed between innovative entrepreneurs and investors from Korea and the United States, leading to a cooperative relationship of mutual growth."

He also emphasized the Korean government's efforts to drive capital expansion in innovative sectors. Chairman Kim said, "The Korean government is actively reviewing reforms to securities companies' operational regulations and rationalizing banks' risk-weighted asset regulations to encourage financial companies to provide more venture capital," and added, "By establishing a 50 trillion won advanced strategic industry fund at the Korea Development Bank, we aim to foster advanced industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, and secondary batteries, and support the innovative growth of companies."

On the 24th, Chairman Kim held meetings with Korean-American venture capitalists (VCs) and U.S.-based corporate venture capitalists (CVCs). The meetings were divided into sessions: one with local U.S. VCs unfamiliar with the Korean venture market, and another with Korean VCs established locally. Discussions covered the characteristics of the Silicon Valley venture ecosystem, strategies for discovering investment targets, methods for capital recovery, overall development plans for the venture ecosystem, and ways to build a cooperative Korea-U.S. investment network.

Participants emphasized that Silicon Valley has become the global center of technological innovation due to a combination of factors, one of which is the presence of the headquarters of global tech companies such as Apple, Nvidia, and Google. They also noted that Silicon Valley highly values innovation, which encourages talented graduates from nearby top universities such as Stanford to boldly pursue startups, and that the entry of big tech companies from other countries into Silicon Valley has become an important element in creating a healthy venture ecosystem.

Chairman Kim stated, "We will strengthen the overseas capabilities of policy financial institutions such as Korea Development Bank and Industrial Bank of Korea so that they can serve as key 'nodes' in the Korea-U.S. venture ecosystem network, and we will also focus on policies to support the overseas expansion of private financial companies."

As his final schedule on the 24th, Chairman Kim also held a meeting with Anthony Lin, CEO of Intel Capital, the world's largest CVC. Through the meeting, Chairman Kim listened to Intel Capital's investment strategies, recent technology trends, areas of investment interest such as AI, and models for mutual growth through CVCs.

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