Korea Social Investment announced on the 7th that it had received the Minister of SMEs and Startups Award at the 2024 Venture Startup Promotion Awards. This award recognizes the company's efforts to discover and nurture ESG/impact startups based on its corporate social contribution budget (donations).
Founded in 2012, Korea Social Investment (KSI) is a public interest impact investment firm. It provides investment, acceleration, and ESG consulting to startups and social innovation organizations addressing social issues. To date, the firm has invested a total of KRW 69.8 billion in cumulative impact investments, demonstrating its strengths in climate tech, social services, agtech, and globalization.
In particular, Korea Social Investment has maintained its focus on ESG startups, investing a total of KRW 2.9 billion in 18 startups in 2024, even amidst what has been called a "chill season" for venture investment. In 2023, the company invested KRW 2.7 billion in 15 companies, expanding its portfolio to 70 companies.
Unlike traditional venture capital (VC) and accelerators (AC), Korea Social Investment (KSI) conducts impact investments based on corporate social contribution budgets. Through this, it serves as "adventure capital" supporting startups' scale-up, "catalytic capital" creating social value, and "patient capital." It supports early-stage startups in climate tech, social services, and agtech to overcome the "death valley" and achieve sustainable growth.
Furthermore, Korea Social Investment operates various acceleration programs in collaboration with large corporations and public corporations, continuously supporting startups to strengthen their management capabilities, open innovation, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) capabilities. Key programs include the "LG Social Campus Leading Green Acceleration Project" with LG Electronics and LG Chem, and the "KOICA CTS Seed 0 Startup Commercialization Training Program" with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
Lee Soon-yeol, CEO of Korea Social Investment, said, “This award is a meaningful moment to look back on Korea Social Investment’s contributions to the domestic impact investment and venture investment ecosystem,” and added, “We will not spare our support for impact startups to ensure sustainable growth and development of the venture ecosystem in 2025.”
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