Korea Venture Investment Corp., the state fund-of-funds manager under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, has secured an asset management license allowing it to raise and manage funds directly in Singapore. It is the first time the organization has obtained a local asset management license overseas. The approval is expected to accelerate the government’s plan to build a $300 million offshore global fund-of-funds.
The ministry said on the 30th that Korea Venture Investment’s Singapore unit received full approval for a Capital Markets Services (CMS) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on the 20th, clearing the way to establish a Variable Capital Company (VCC).
A VCC is a Singapore corporate structure designed exclusively for investment funds, allowing multiple sub-funds to operate independently under a single legal entity. With the full approval, the Singapore unit now has the regulatory footing to raise and manage funds directly as a local fund manager.
In a comprehensive plan unveiled last year to make Korea one of the world’s four leading venture powers, the ministry said it would set up an offshore global fund-of-funds in Singapore, Asia’s financial hub, to support the overseas expansion of the domestic venture ecosystem. The vehicle will be scaled up in stages to a total of $300 million by 2030.
The ministry and Korea Venture Investment completed the establishment of the Singapore entity in April last year and have since been hiring local staff and building out management systems. They pursued a fund management license from MAS, winning provisional approval in July before securing full approval this time.
Following the license, the two plan to begin follow-up steps in earnest, including setting up the VCC and raising sub-funds, with the goal of launching the K-Global Venture Fund in the second half of this year.
“Through this full license approval, we will strengthen connections between global investors and our venture companies and startups, using Singapore — a center of global finance and venture investment — as our base, and greatly expand opportunities for domestic venture capital firms to move overseas,” said Noh Yong-seok, first vice minister of SMEs and Startups. “We will develop the K-Global Venture Fund into a core platform for venture investment in Asia so that promising domestic startups can leap into global markets on the strength of global capital and networks.”
#KoreaVentureInvestment#Singapore#VentureCapital#VCC#Startups#FundOfFunds
Original reporting by Ryu Seok for Seoul Economic Daily.
AI-translated from Korean. Quotes from foreign sources are based on Korean-language reports and may not reflect exact original wording.
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