The Ministry of SMEs and Startups in South Korea recently introduced the ‘Regional Angel Investment Fund’ to encourage initial investments in non-metropolitan areas of the country. This initiative aims to boost local regions’ startup and venture ecosystems by providing funding opportunities.
The ‘Regional Angel Investment Fund of Funds serves as a parent fund that invests in individual investment associations, also known as child associations, specifically formed to invest in companies located in non-metropolitan regions. The parent fund can invest up to 80% of the total contract amount for each association.
To ensure that the investment benefits non-metropolitan areas, the cooperatives that receive funding are required to invest a minimum of 60% of the total cooperative agreement amount in local companies outside the metropolitan areas. This strategy allows the local angel investment fund to act as a catalyst for discovering and nurturing promising local businesses.
Individuals or entities eligible to form an individual investment association and receive funding from the regional angel investment funds include professional individual investors, startup planners, new technology startup companies, creative economy innovation centers, and industry-academia-research cooperation technology holding companies.
Lee Eun-cheong, the director of venture policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, expressed expectations that the regional angel investment fund will encourage investments in non-metropolitan local companies, ultimately contributing to the vitality and growth of the local startup and venture ecosystem.
Proposals for this initiative will be accepted from June 20th, 10:00 AM, until July 11th, 2:00 PM. Additional details regarding the application process can be found on the Korea Venture Investment website
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