"Our technology is fully ready, but where are we supposed to meet overseas investors?"
That was the concern a startup chief executive shared with me recently as the company prepared to expand abroad. The founder had researched around the clock to launch an innovative service and had survived the fierce early-stage competition, only to run into a wall at the moment of trying to reach the next level. Startups have growth stages much like people do, and the scale of funding and the type of investor they need shift at each stage. The stretch where early-stage money is running out but full-scale growth capital has yet to arrive is commonly called the death valley. The bigger the leap ahead — such as going global — the steeper that hurdle feels.
Korea's venture investment market has been expanding steadily. According to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, new venture investment reached 13.6 trillion won in 2025, up 14% from a year earlier and the second-largest figure on record, while the number of domestic unicorns — companies valued at $1 billion or more — rose to 27 as of 2025. Global capital flows have grown as well. Crunchbase, a U.S. venture investment data provider, put worldwide venture investment at roughly $425 billion in 2025, with about half of that going to artificial intelligence. For Korean companies that need tens or hundreds of billions of won in follow-on funding to become unicorns, attracting overseas investment can be an important route that complements domestic money and widens their options for growth.
Foreign capital brings more than money. Drawing in an overseas investor is much like securing a passage into the local market where that investor is based. Global investors bring information, networks and experience from the markets they operate in, and they can become partners in growth rather than mere providers of capital. Companies can be introduced to local customers and business partners, and get help learning unfamiliar regulations and market cultures. In effect, they gain a guide to the global market along with the funding. As such experience accumulates, companies build competitiveness that meets global standards, and the industrial ecosystem grows richer as well.
The problem is that there are few chances for the two sides to find each other. Overseas investors have a hard time knowing which promising companies exist in Korea, and companies find it difficult to gauge which investor in Silicon Valley or Tokyo would be a good fit. Add the practical barriers of distance, language and time zones, and connections go unmade simply because the information never reaches either side.
This is where public investment promotion agencies have a role to play — closing that gap. The work involves identifying companies that are ready to raise funds and presenting them in terms that match investors' expectations, while steadily creating venues for introductions through overseas roadshows and one-on-one meetings. It is also important to keep supplying reliable information about Korean companies to overseas markets. In effect, it means giving overseas investors a window through which to see Korean companies at a glance, and giving companies a guide into unfamiliar markets. Only when such points of contact accumulate steadily does a single meeting stand a better chance of leading to actual investment and cooperation.
Next week, the 2026 Seoul Innovest Summit will be held in Seoul. The event connects global investors with promising companies based in Seoul. Similar efforts are also under way at the central government level. Early this month, the Ministry of Science and ICT held AI Festa 26 as part of AI Week 2026, and in December the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will host COMEUP 2026 to support Korean startups in expanding abroad, raising investment and engaging with the global startup ecosystem.
There is no guarantee that a single meeting will translate directly into investment. But without the meeting, the possibility never begins. Founders who spend their nights refining their services should never have to stop simply because they do not know whom to meet. As such encounters accumulate one by one, both the growth paths of individual companies and the reach of Korean industry will widen together.