• Smart Media Journal
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.93-101
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• 2023

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between a company's Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio strength and its success in obtaining venture funding in the Korean digital media & entertainment industry. Using data from 685 Korean digital media & entertainment companies registered in Crunchbase, a global database provider of venture funding information, we found that a strong IP portfolio is positively associated with funding success. Furthermore, our study revealed that the effect of IP portfolio strength on funding success is stronger for younger companies, suggesting that IP portfolio is more critical for firms that have less reputation and track record.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.1-10
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• 2022

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly diffused across industries and societies as nations' essential strategic technology. In innovative technology, such as AI, a startup leads to technological innovation and significantly impacts the expansion of relevant industries. Thus, this study examined the trend of AI startup venture capital (VC) investments globally, focusing on ① noteworthy VC investment statuses (the number and size of the investment, company establishment, and corporate collection), ② the characteristics of each key nation's investments, and ③ the characteristics of each submarket's investments. Among the 11 countries, the results showed that Korea ranked near the bottom for absolute quantitative measures, including the number and size of investments, company establishment, and corporate collection. However, Korea has built a foundation of catching up with what AI-leading countries have established, considering Korea's high growth rate in the number and size of investments and a recent mega-round. This study has practical implications in that it determined the AI startup VC investment status of Korea's rival countries, not only G2 (US and China). The results can be used in policy-making. Furthermore, identifying the AI industry's submarkets and analyzing each market's VC investment status could be used to establish strategies for the AI industry and R&D.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1-9
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• 2019

Since 2005, Korea Venture Investment Corp. (KVIC) has been managing Korean Fund of Funds (KFoF) which helped greatly the domestic venture capitals create their private funds. Its contribution, however, is not limited fetching the pump. When KFoF decides to invest in VC funds, it demands very strict rules the VC funds need to follow before and after their investments in private equities. Whether this tight control of investments does hinder GPs' creativity or rather enhance GPs' transparency and professionalism is an open question subject to empirical tests. If KFoF is only fetching the pump, and neither fund size or time horizon improves VC funds' return rates, then KFoF's involvement in VC funds should not be positively related to VC funds' return rates. If, on the other hand, KFoF harms GPs' creativity, KFoF's involvement should be negatively related to VC funds' performances. Still, if KFoF promotes GPs' transparency and professionalism, its presence in VC funds should positively affect the returns earned by VC funds. Even when KFoF only got to get quality VC funds because those GPs good enough to stand up to the tight conditions set forth by KFoF, the empirical implication will yield the same results. In this article, empirical tests are carried out using the data provided by Korea Venture Capital Association. The VC funds formed and liquidated from 2000 to 2018 are selected for the tests. The results show that VC funds with the presence of KFoF exceed VC funds without KFoF in returns, which supports the hypothesis that KFoF enhances transparency and professionalism of VC funds.

• 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2021.04a
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• pp.173-179
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• 2021

기술을 기반으로 스타트업을 시작한 창업자들은 벤처캐피탈(VC) 등 기술기반 벤처기업에 투자를 하는 사람들이 오로지 기술만을 평가하여 투자를 진행할 것이라고 오해하기 쉽다. 그 생각에서 벗어나지 못하면 기술 벤처기업에 전문적으로 투자하는 투자자에게 투자를 받기는 쉽지 않을 것이다. 본고에서는 기술 벤처기업에 전문적으로 투자하는 투자자들이 어떤 관점에서 투자를 진행하는지에 대해서 알아봄으로써 기술 기반으로 스타트업을 시작한 창업자가 투자유치를 어떻게 진행해야 할 지에 대한 지침을 주고자 한다.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1-18
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• 2019

Venture capitalists (VCs) play an important role in finding and growing innovative venture companies with high growth potential but high risk. Venture capital investment does not depend on the system, unlike the investment for listed companies. Korea's venture capital industry has entered a period of growth, but lack of data has led to a lack of research on venture capital. Based on this background, this study attempts to analyze various factors affecting investment decision criteria of Korea VCs. In this study, I examined the major factors that VCs consider in decision making of investment through literature review, and I have drawn the research question accordingly. I will focus on the characteristics of founders, products / services, markets, financials, and networks that scholars share common investment decision criteria in Korean VCs. For the purpose of this study, the data were collected through the questionnaire surveyed by investment vetters working in current venture capital and analyzed using AHP analysis. Through this study, I tried to understand the Korean venture capital which has been poorly studied and what criteria and priorities Korean VCs make investment decisions in the Korean venture investment environment. The results of this research will contribute to the vitalization of venture investment, which is important for the upbringing of companies, by providing guidelines for establishing investment attraction strategies of venture companies.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.61-92
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• 2011

We analyzed the efficiency of environment investments by taking examples of central government's environmental investment (CGEI hereafter) and investment in prevention of environmental pollution (IPEP hereafter). We expanded the scope of existing studies by decomposing the internal rate of return (IRR hereafter) and present value of benefit (Bpv hereafter) into variable cost (VC hereafter) reduction, investment cost reduction (STC-VC hereafter), and rent. And we found that Bpv checks only the magnitude of benefit, while IRR indicates the existence of efficiency by investigating short-run total cost (STC hereafter) reduction and rent. Finally, by analyzing investment efficiency and changing benefit with respect to CGEI and IPEP through the investment efficiency methodology that compares IRR with market interest rate, we executed retrospective benefit-cost analysis. Accordingly, CGEI and IPEP are not efficient. However, IPEP is even more inefficient than CGEI.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2021

The purpose of this research is to improve the investment success rate for startups in the water industry for the development of the entrepreneurial environment of the Korean water industry. In this research, we identified investment determinants through prior research and stratified them, and then surveyed the investor group at the beginning of the start-up using the FGI method, and determined the order of the investment determinants of investors. At the same time, we classified 41 start-ups related to the water industry into two groups: the group that received investment and the group that did not in the early stages of the start-up. Then we investigated the understanding of the investor's investment determinants, ranked them, and compared them by using the AHP technique. Through this, this research proposes five implications. First, it is important for start-ups in the early stages to receive seed investment to revitalize investment for startups in the water industry. For this, startups need to understand investors and prepare to attract investment with the perspective of angel investors rather than the perspective of VC investors. Second, Start-ups in the water sector should consider that the characteristics of the founder are important in order to receive seed investment, and also need to define their business at the industry and market level, and provide relevant rationale to meet the expectations of investors who value industry expertise and experience, and to increase the possibility of seed investment, which is important in the early stages of a startup. Third, institutions, such as K-water(Korea Water Resources Corporation), that support water industry startups need to conduct open innovation business opportunities discovery programs linked to startups so that startups currently participating in the startup support program could have business opportunities from the business infrastructure of platform-forming companies in the water industry. In particular, such institutions should help founders develop their industrial expertise and careers by supporting this type of start-up preparation process through the participation of in-house venture founders. Fourth, when K-water uses the government start-up support fund to discover and foster founders, it should increase initial contact with seed investors, conduct more thorough verification of business plans, and develop programs that use government start-up support funds to prepare a business suitable for seed angel investors. Fifth, K-water should support seed by connecting funds for initial investment among funds operated by itself. It is also necessary to develop a program that links the company receiving the seed investment with VC investment, not angel investment in cooperation with the VC fund operation entity participating as an LP so that companies that have attracted seed investment could attract follow-up VC investment.

• The Journal of Small Business Innovation
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.43-59
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• 2018

This study investigates the relationship between venture capital (hereafter, VC) syndicate diversity and the IPO performance of an entrepreneurial company backed by the syndicate. Specifically, focusing on three types of diversity within a VC syndicate, which are aligned with Harrison and Klein's seminal categorization in 2007 (i.e., separation, variety, and disparity), this study suggests their distinct effects on performance. Two stage least square analyses with 1,127 VC syndicate investments made by 6,268 VC firms strongly supported the hypotheses. The results showed that that capacity diversity decreases the performance and that expertise diversity and network diversity increase it.

• 한국벤처창업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2016.04a
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• pp.48-50
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• 2016

본 연구는 벤처캐피탈에 대한 정부의 간접출자가 창업초기단계 기업에 대한 투자를 장려하는지에 대해 논한다. 벤처캐피탈의 의사결정이 합리적 투자자의 관점을 취한다고 가정하고 정부의 자금투여가 이에 영향을 미치는 원리를 불확실성 완화효과, 정책유도 효과, 투자금의 규모의 경제효과, 정보비대칭성 완화효과, 자본비용 완화효과로 분해하여 이론적 고찰을 한다. 이론적 논의를 종합하여, 본 논문은 다음의 주장을 한다. 첫 째, 정부출자금의 규모가 벤처캐피탈의 창업초기단계 기업에 대한 투자를 증가시키는 효과를 가질 것이다. 둘 째, 창업초기단계에 대한 투자지침을 명시한 출자금을 유치한 벤처캐피탈의 창업초기단계 투자가 그러한 투자지침을 갖지 않는 출자금을 유치한 벤처캐피탈에 비해 클 것이다. 셋 째, 정부출자금의 창업초기단계 기업의 투자에 대한 규모효과는 일정 수준 이상이 되면 감소하여 역U의 형태를 보일 것이다. 본 연구는 2010년부터 2013년 사이 투자활동을 벌인 한국의 105개 벤처캐피탈사의 출자금 구성과 투자 내역자료를 활용하여 상기 주장의 유효성을 실증 조사하였다. 다중회귀분석을 포함한 다양한 통계적 검정의 결과 세 가지 주장을 모두 지지하는 일관된 결론을 얻었다. 본 연구는 벤처캐피탈의 투자행태 및 정책개입의 효과와 메커니즘에 대한 새로운 설명을 제시한다는 이론적 의의와 이에 대한 실증근거의 제시를 통해 벤처기업 및 벤처캐피탈 정책의 효과와 방향성에 대한 재검토의 기회를 제공한다는 실무적 의의를 갖는다.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.25-32
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate how to make a proper investment in ICO in the market. Previously, companies used to borrow money from banks or to obtain investments from venture capital (VC) and angel investors, but now ICOs are used as a new type of funding and financing model. The ICO sells the tokens or coins created on the blockchain openly online to raise the necessary funds, and provides the market value by paying the tokens or coins as much as the investment amount. According to this study, the limitations of the ICO market are (1) difficulties in evaluating the company, (2) uncertainties in investments, (3) lack of legal safeguards, and (4) measures to secure corporate stability after recruitment. At present, there is no way to cope with this systematically since the ICO is not protected in the legal framework. Nevertheless, we investigated the ways to make proper investment in the existing ICO market. In investing in ICO, investors should (1) consider investment methods and profitability, and (2) verify and judge investment fraud through various channels (ex. Homepage, composition team profile, etc.) and make investments based on this. This study will contribute to the formation of a healthy ICO market by understanding the newly emerged ICO market and studying the considerations when investing in it, thereby contributing to the right investor training and reducing the mass production of consumer damages caused by fraud. The limitation of this study is that the domestic ICO has not yet been examined in the legal framework, so further research is needed when policy changes occur in the future.