BUSAN — The Busan Technology Venture Investment Agency has delivered the first result of the "nine core tasks within 100 days" program it has pursued since Kim Soo-jin took office as its second president, accelerating efforts to build Busan into a leading startup and investment hub in Asia.
The agency said on the 19th that it signed a three-way investment partnership agreement at its headquarters conference room with Ascendo Ventures, a South Korean venture capital firm, and Bogazici Ventures, a Turkish investor specializing in technology innovation.
The agreement was pursued to turn global investment demand identified through FLY ASIA 2026, an Asian startup and investment expo, into actual capital inflows. The three organizations plan to cooperate on creating a global joint fund, linking investment to promising tech companies in Busan and building a global investment network.
At the center of the agreement is the formation of a global joint fund of up to $25 million (about 34 billion won). Of that, up to $7.5 million, or 30% and about 10 billion won, will be channeled into promising tech companies in the Busan area. The fund started at $13 million last year and is planned to grow to as much as $25 million by December this year.
Ascendo Ventures is a venture capital firm with strengths in deep tech fields including artificial intelligence, biotechnology, defense and clean tech, and operates a Busan branch. Bogazici Ventures is a Turkey-based asset manager that has invested in strong technology companies from early stages through pre-IPO rounds. The agency plans to work with the two firms to identify Busan companies with high growth potential and to provide close support through follow-on investment abroad.
The agency has also formed a preparatory committee to launch a "Global Investment Alliance" that will continue to support the scale-up and overseas expansion of Busan technology companies. Lee Jung-seok, chief executive of Ascendo Ventures, will chair the committee, with the agency's future strategy task force team, fund investment division and global investment division taking part jointly. The committee plans to set up regular meetings, investor workshops and a standing deal-sharing system to make the discovery of promising companies and investment in them a continuous process.
Kim, who took office on Sept. 10, said the agency would spare no support so that the growth potential of Busan startups demonstrated through FLY ASIA can translate into actual investment results. She added that the agency would use the Global Investment Alliance as a springboard to actively back the growth of promising local companies and their entry into overseas markets.