이 기사는 2019년 12월 09일 08:00 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korea’s venture capital (VC) firm SV Investment sets up a 100 billion won fund, the largest of its kind in the firm’s history. The country’s major limited partners have promised to invest in the fund, allowing the firm to move one step closer to racking up asset under management (AUM) of one trillion won.

According to industry sources on December 3, SV Investment was picked as a general partner of South Korea’s pension fund National Pension Service (NPS)’s startup investment, which makes the VC firm create SV Gap Coverage Fund III, worth 150 billion won, this month.

SV Gap Coverage Fund III is SV Investment’s secondary venture fund, following SV Gap Coverage Fund I and II. Both funds delivered a solid performance by investing in start-ups and venture companies that are undervalued due to their initial price offering (IPO) risks.

Limited partners that participated in SV Gap Coverage Fund I and II have decided put their money in the third fund. As SV Investment secures a commitment of 25 billion won from its anchor investor Korea Growth Investment Corp., Yellow Umbrella Mutual Aid Fund and POSCO made their matching commitments of 10 billion won and 16 billion won, respectively, and NPS recently has decided to invest in the fund.

Thanks to the latest fund creation, SV Investment’s AUM is expected to near one trillion won mark by the end of this year. The VC firm’s current AUM stands at 733.2 billion won, including private equity funds and foreign funds. Two more funds are likely to be created this month. One is a unicorn fund which already has secured 55 billion won of commitment and is raising additional 10 billion won. Another one is SV Gap Coverage Fund III, whose size is expected to be around 150 billion won.

SV Gap Coverage Fund III is the largest domestic VC fund that the firm has ever launched. SV Investment has Halla-SV Private Equity Fund, worth 100 billion won, in its Private Equity Fund division and its foreign fund Shenzhen China-Korea Industrial Investment Fund, worth 120 billion won.

SV Investment plans to focus on start-ups and venture companies that are in their growth stage in the industries related to the fourth industrial revolution. The firm will execute investment strategies that were used for SV Gap Coverage Fund I and II to manage the latest fund. Yu Ji-hwa, senior managing director of SV Investment, will act as a representative fund manager.

“The success in managing existing secondary funds and strong international networks were keys to the fundraising,” said a SV Investment official, adding “The firm’s first 100 billion won fund plans to select and invest in potential unicorn companies and generate high returns.”

(By reporter Bang Geulah)