The Gangwon Creative Economy Innovation Center (CEO Lee Hae-jeong, hereinafter referred to as the Gangwon Innovation Center) announced on the 31st that it was finally selected as the operator (GP) for the first step of local enterprises in the 2025 Gangwon Strategic Industry Venture Fund investment project.
With this selection, Gangwon Innovation Center will receive 2.9 billion won in investment from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' mother fund, establish a 3.78 billion won fund in January next year, and begin full-scale investment activities.
In particular, this fund is operated through a Secured Equity Equity Agreement (SAFE) for early-stage startups, enabling rapid and flexible investment execution without the burden of calculating corporate value.
The main investment targets are startups in Gangwon's seven future industries, including bio and health, semiconductors, food tech, climate tech, and future cars. To ensure balanced regional development, the plan also includes mandatory investment provisions for specific regions, such as Taebaek and Gangneung, with the goal of revitalizing the startup ecosystem across the province.
Gangwon Innovation Center has been making initial investments in strategic industry-focused startups in Gangwon Province for the past several years, and this year, it was selected as an operating organization for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' Startup-BuS (Build up Strategy for Startups) program, continuously discovering and nurturing promising startups, and has made concentrated investments in 11 deep-tech startups possessing original technologies in Gangwon's future industries.
“This fund will serve as a bridge to provide practical support to startups in the province that are having difficulties securing funding,” said Lee Hae-jeong, CEO of the Gangwon Innovation Center. “Combined with the center’s incubation infrastructure, we will closely support the companies that have received investment so that they can grow into unicorn companies representing the region.”
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