The Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs, a non-profit organization that funds startups in South Korea, helped nurture nine out of 18 unicorns and added a corporate worth of 13 trillion won ($10.3 billion) over the last 10 years.

The fund celebrating its 10th anniversary in May was launched by 19 financial institutions with a fund of 845 billion won.

It established D.CAMP, the nation’s first startup incubation in 2013 in Gangnam, and opened the nation’s largest start-up support center Front1 in Mapo in 2020 to discover and support promising startups.

It invested 570.78 billion won over the past 10 years, adding 109,000 new jobs and creating an economic value amounting to 28.2 trillion won.

By the end of last year, 2,868 companies including nine out of 18 of the country’s unicorn companies such as the nation’s top food delivery app Baedal Minjok, neighborhood marketplace app Danggeun Market, and leading real estate information service app Jikbang received indirect investments.

In the past 10 years, the foundation has invested in a total of 26 funds to create a fund worth 12.9 trillion won. This year, it plans to secure a 28 billion won budget for direct and indirect investments to create 15 funds.

For the past decade, the foundation has invested 18.6 billion won directly in 144 companies and enabled them to grow without worry of immediate return.

The foundation is planning to invest 4 billion won in 25 early-stage startups this year.

The startups that will receive direct investments are selected through D.Day, a major startup demo day event organized by D.CAMP that was held a total of 92 times since it first launched in June 2013.

Former participants of D.Day such as Coptiq, Algocare, N.THING, and Wayne Hills Ventures received Innovation Awards at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022.

The Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs is also currently running various partnership programs with the United Nations lndustrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the World Bank to help startups further grow their businesses and collaborate with foreign companies.

The foundation is also preparing various types of services to help connect domestic companies to firms in Japan and Southeast Asia and to assist with international recruitments.

“Our goal for the next 10 years is to help domestic startups find reliable companies in foreign countries to partner with to minimize the time and funds it takes to adapt to foreign markets,” said Kim Young-duk, the executive director of Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs.

By Susan Lee

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