Korea Development Bank (KDB) announced on Nov. 17 that it signed a business agreement for fostering national science and technology startups with the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) and the Korea Innovation Foundation.
This agreement is meaningful in that the three institutions jointly support tech startups whom commercialize innovative science and technology, contributing to the discovery of future growth engines for Korea, while creating a regional innovation ecosystem.
KDB plans to invest more than 100 billion won into companies which received new technologies from science and technology research institutes under the NST, research lab-type companies and managed by the Korea Innovation Foundation, and companies in special zones for research and development, over the next 5 years.
In addition to KDB’s financial support, the three organizations plan to support various non-financial fields, such as startup incubation, investment attraction, global advancement, technological advancement, and business diversification by utilizing their own corporate support programs.
The NST is an organization that supports and nurtures 25 government-funded research institutes in the field of science and technology, which are key players in the development of national strategic technologies.
It is contributing to the development of national industries and technological innovation by using the results to help start-up businesses, transfer technology, and support companies.
The Korea Innovation Foundation, an institution specializing in the commercialization of technologies developed by non-profit organizations, is dedicated to fostering local technology companies in five major special zones including Daedeok Special Zone nationwide and 14 minor special zones.
It will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year.
In particular, the foundation is leading the growth of companies specializing in national strategic technology fields by supporting about 300 cases per year in commercialization projects using technology developed by non-profit organizations for 8,400 regional companies.
KDB is strengthening venture investment in promising tech startups in key strategic technology fields, such as semiconductors and aerospace. It is running Korea’s leading venture platforms including KDB NextRound, NextRise and NextONE to create and expand venture startup ecosystems.
Over the past five years, KDB invested 103.4 billion won in 39 startups affiliated with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and others under by the NST.
Taking this business agreement as an opportunity, KDB will further expand venture startup investment in connection with national science and technology research achievements, and at the same time, diversify and advance non-financial support measures for startups through collaboration among organizations.
“If KDB combines its venture capital capabilities and venture platform with the experiences of NST and the Korea Innovation Foundation which have led the half-century history of science and technology research and technology commercialization in Korea, it will greatly contribute to the creation of an innovative ecosystem based on science and technology,” said Kang Seok-hoon, chairman of KDB.
“Through this agreement, we will actively discover promising tech startups that will lead the competition for global technological supremacy while promoting the creation of new industries based on regions, thereby contributing to the revitalization of regional economies,” he added.
Meanwhile, KDB completed the establishment of the Sanction Compliance Program (SCP) to control the risk of sanction violations in accordance with the trend of global business expansion and the strengthening of financial regulations.
The Sanction Compliance Program (SCP) is an internal control system that preemptively and autonomously controls the risk of economic sanctions.
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