Investment platform OurCrowd, Israel’s most active venture capital investment institution, has been entrusted by the Korean government to manage a bilateral investment fund that will invest in startups from both countries. The bilateral fund’s fundraising goal is $80 million, with $48 million already raised by NH Venture Investment and K-Growth, the fund’s Korean partners with access to Korea’s largest companies. The OurCrowd platform is currently raising capital from 240,000 qualified investors around the world.
NH Venture Investment, which raised $16 million for the fund, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nonghyup, one of South Korea’s top five financial companies with $400 billion in assets under management. K-Growth, which raised $32 million, is also one of South Korea’s largest financial groups and handles most of the Korean government’s technology investments (through the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) designed to achieve the country’s strategic goals. The fund has nearly $40 billion under management. The fund is co-managed by NH Venture Investment and OurCrowd.
The bilateral fund plans to invest in around 25-30 startups from both countries focused on deep technology (deep tech) in areas such as semiconductors, robotics, automotive industry, quantum computing, cybersecurity and digital health.
OurCrowd CEO John Medved: “The establishment of the Israel-Korea Binational Fund with the support of the Korean government is great news for Israel’s hi-tech industry today. South Korea is looking to Israeli innovation to position itself in the industries of the future, which it aims to lead in the next decade and beyond. Thus, apart from the Fund’s investments, Israeli diptech companies will have direct access to Korean industrial giants and be able to forge collaborations on a global scale, including in the Asia-Pacific market. Meanwhile, Korean startups will benefit from deep connections with leading Israeli venture capital investors, entrepreneurs and private investors (family offices), accelerating their entry into the innovative technology market and accessing vital capital for them.”
Kim Yunjin, CEO of NH Venture Investment, said: “K-Growth launched the fund to help Korean companies expand through open collaboration focused on innovation with global technology companies, including innovative Israeli companies. Through this fund, we hope to see Korean startups collaborating and growing together with Israeli innovation with the help of OurCrowd’s extensive network in Israel and around the world.”
South Korea’s economy is the 13th largest in the world and the 4th largest in Asia. Its gross domestic product grew by 4.1% in 2021. South Korea is also the world’s fifth largest manufacturing nation after China, the United States, Japan and Germany, and is the second largest in the world in terms of research and development investment as a percentage of GDP.
Founded in 2013 by John Medved, OurCrowd has become the most active investment group in Israeli venture capital over the past decade with over 240,000 registered qualified investors from 195 countries. Since its inception, OurCrowd has raised over $2.3 billion in investment commitments and has invested in over 440 portfolio companies and 56 investment funds to date, with 63 exits, including Beyond Meat, Lemonade, Innoviz, Arbe, Alpha Tau, Freightos issuance, Uber’s acquisition of Jump Bike, Canon’s acquisition of Briefcam, Continental’s acquisition of Argus, Oracle’s acquisition of Crosswise, Intel’s acquisition of Replay, Samsung’s acquisition of Corephotonics, Microsoft’s acquisition of CyberX, and Cisco’s acquisition of Kenna Security.
