Korea Investment Accelerator Concludes 2023 Investments… $7.7M in 38 Companies

Korea Investment Accelerator(한국투자액셀러레이터) invested a total of $ 7.7 million (KRW 10.2 billion) in 38 companies (31 new investments) last year. This is an increase of 26% over the previous year.

Korea Investment Accelerator invested $2.5 million (KRW 3.3 billion) in 19 companies recruited through its startup batch programme, VarenDongheang Dream Challenger and $1.2 million (KRW 1.5 billion) in follow-on investments. It also invested $4 million (KRW 5.4 billion) in 12 deep-tech startups. The investments ranged from $300,0000 (KRW 400 million) to $750,000 (KRW 1 billion) in mainly deep tech startups, including Hygen Energy, Poscore, Uniqconn, HUJECT and NeuroXT, an AI-based brain disease diagnosis startup. “Our two-track investment strategy of investing through the Dream Challenger programme and discovering new companies has resulted in a well-balanced portfolio,” said Korea Investment Accelerator.

It is also noteworthy that within a year and a half of Fund #1’s launch, eight follow-on investments (totalling $1.3 billion, KRW 1.7 billion) have been made. Dream Challenger 1st batch companies Kangsters and Likenot, 2nd batch companies Yune, Paprika Data Lab, ConnectBrick, Tween Nano, FluentT and 3rd batch company Vsion have shown rapid growth since the programme. “Thanks to the support in attracting follow-on investments such as the Demo Day in each batch, more than 30% of all portfolio companies have attracted follow-on investments at high valuations, showing growth even in a difficult environment,” added the Korea Investment Accelerator.

This brings the total number of companies invested in by the Korea Investment Accelerator to 73. A total of $ 14 million (KRW 18.3 billion) has been invested. Korea Investment Accelerator, which has a strategy to raise and deploy $11.3 million (KRW 1.5 billion) annually from Korea Investment Holdings and its subsidiaries, has previously raised Hantu VarenDongheang Sherpa Fund #1 (hereinafter referred to as Fund #1’s) in 2022 and Hantu VarenDongheang Sherpa Fund #2 in 2023. This year, Korea Investment Accelerator is also preparing to launch Fund #3.

Having achieved excellent recommendation performance as a new TIPS manager last year, Korea Investment Accelerator plans to actively recommend not only TIPS but also deep-tech TIPS this year. In particular, in addition to directly recommending more than a double-digit number of companies this year, the company has expressed its ambition to work with co-investment firms to ensure that as many teams as possible are selected for the TIPS programme.

In addition to its existing two-track strategy, the firm will also focus on discovering deep-tech start-ups through its Open Innovation (OI) programme. Just as it held two Media and Content Startup Contests with the SBS Foundation last year, it plans to select promising deep-tech startups through the OI programme and provide them with various support, including investment.

Yerhyun Beak, CEO of Korea Investment Accelerator, said, “This year, along with our existing two-track investment strategy, we will increase the proportion of investments in the 10 super-gap sectors that will be at the heart of Korea’s future food discovery through our new OI programme in deep tech.” “Despite the challenging environment, we will continue to invest $11.3 million (KRW 15 billion) in our Fund #3 and $9.4 million (KRW 12.5 billion) in early-stage startups this year,” he added.