Chairman Yoon Jong-kyoo of KB Financial Group shakes hands with CEO Saeed Amidi of Plug and Play after signing an agreement to groom promising startups across the globe and collaborating on supporting early-stage business ventures in Korea on July 31 at the financial group’s office in Yeouido, Seoul. (Photo: KBFG)

KB Financial Group Inc. and international business accelerator Plug and Play are teaming up to groom promising startups across the globe.

The banking group said July 31 it has signed an agreement with Plug and Play to collaborate on supporting early-stage business ventures in Korea.

Plug and Play is a Silicon Valley-based accelerator, which made early stage investments world’s leading tech companies, including PayPal and Dropbox. It has offices in 30 countries across the world, collaborating with 300 some large enterprises and over 1,100 startups.

The partnership agreement between KB Financial Group and Plug and Play was made after Yoon Jong-kyoo, chairman of KB Financial Group, visited the startup accelerator in the U.S. to learn more about its experience in supporting early-stage businesses.

Following the formal partnership agreement, KB Financial Group will be given the rights to review the list of most promising startups of the world and also participate in the process of selecting and investing in ventures.

Also, it will be allowed to recommend businesses from its own startup program “KB Starters” to Plug and Play’s accelerating program, which would deliver opportunities to expand partnership with other international companies.

Yoon vowed to give utmost support to startups to help them grow bigger and go global. Plug and Play Tech Center is an early stage investor (Plug and Play Ventures) and corporate innovation platform with global headquarters in Sunnyvale, California in the Silicon Valley.

It was recently named the 'Most active Silicon Valley venture capital firm' by Silicon Valley Business Journal.

According to Plug and Play's 2018 report, the company accelerated 1,107 startups in 2018 (562 in the U.S. and 545 non-domestic).

The company claims to have made 222 investments in 2018.

Plug and Play was an early investor in Google, PayPal, Dropbox, LendingClub, N26, Soundhound and Guardant Health.

Its Spring 2017 programs hosted 175 startups in nine different industries.

Its Spring 2019 programs hosted 135 startups in seven different industries.

The industries the company focuses on include:

• Brand & Retail • Smart Cities
• Financial Technologies (Fintech)
• Food & Beverage • Health & Wellness
• Insurance Technologies (Insurtech)
• Internet of Things • Mobility
• New Materials & Packaging
• Travel & Hospitality • Real Estate Tech
• Energy & Sustainability • Cybersecurity
• Supply Chain & Logistics (Logtech)
• Industrial Safety Technology (Safetytech)
• Plug and Play Ventures is focused on early stage investing, with the majority of investments ranging between the Seed to Series A stage.

“We actively invest in a handful of companies that join our 12-week vertical specific programs, but also make many investments outside of our vertical programs, either through referrals, inbounds, or by our own sourcing efforts.

Our check sizes range between $50,000-$500,000 and have been deployed in companies valued over $100 million,” the company said. Some of Plug and Play’s successful exits include Dropbox, PayPal, Lending Club, and Rappi.



“While we have invested in over 550 startups since the 90s, more than half of the investments have been made in the past 3 years as Plug and Play has experienced significant growth more recently.

We are often cited as one of the most active early-stage investors globally – in 2018, we did over 100 investments out of our Silicon Valley office alone,” according to the company.

“As an early stage investor, some of the core factors we evaluate prior to our investments include team (backgrounds, relations), traction, market opportunity and fit. Since we make bets on companies before they have a substantial amount of revenue, we consider customers in the company’s pipeline, number of prior paid pilots that will convert to contracts, and their sizeable market.

The team is also an important factor for us – we value co-founders with a story that makes sense as to why they are embarking on this challenging journey together.”