Invest KOREA

According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News) Israel's Yozma Fund, a global tech venture capital fund, said Monday it plans to invest 1 trillion won (US$988 million) in South Korea over the next three years and help local startups venture into overseas markets.

Yozma Fund, created by the Israeli government and private investors in 1993, has invested in new venture capital funds and has a successful track record.

The fund was sold in 1997, and its capital management stood at some US$4 billion in 2013, a huge leap from the initial $100 million.

The fund said it would set up an office for its business by next month.

In 2013, the Park Geun-hye government said it would create a fund for tech startups tailored after Yozma Fund. In August of last year, the so-called Growth Ladder Fund was launched with funds of 400 billion won, set to increase to 2 trillion won by next year.

The move is part of the government's ongoing efforts to encourage venture capital and start-up activities. In May last year, the government unveiled a set of measures, including tax cuts and other financial support, to help small but innovative companies.

Yozma Fund said it would also set up "Yozma Startup Campus" in South Korea in a bid to develop Asia's fourth-largest economy into a startup hub for Asia.

The fund said it would review building the campus either in the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a manufacturing zone jointly run by two Koreas in a North Korean border city, or the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.

sam@yna.co.kr

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