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KDB NextRound, the venture investment platform by South Korea’s state-owned Korea Development Bank (KDB), has proved to be a useful launching pad for Korean startup as it arranged a total of 1.45 trillion won ($1.22 billion) capital for them in less than four years.

The state lender launched its incubation program in August 2016 to employ its credentials as a sovereign fund to attract capital for Korean startups.

Total 1,171 startups and SMEs have joined the program via IR events held 325 times at home and abroad. Of them 249 drew combined 1.45 trillion won investment.

Local children’s educational content provider SmartStudy, famous for globally-viral children’s song “Baby Shark,” is one of the program beneficiaries that gained an unexpected business opportunity during the KDB NextRound Global Round event held in September in Jakarta, Indonesia.


The company at the event was offered a partnership with Gojek Entertainment, the entertainment affiliate of Indonesia’s ride-hailing giant Gojek, and agreed to supply its Baby Shark contents to Gojek’s over-the-top platform.

It hopes the partnership would help expand its business in Indonesia with a population of about 270 million and further to Southeast Asia.

“KDB’s global network makes the difference between its program and others. It makes it possible for local startups to have easier access to foreign investment under the program,” Ryan Seungkyu Lee, co-founder and CFO of SmartStudy, said in an interview with Maeil Business Newspaper.

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Kurly, which runs the fast-rising online door-to-door grocery service Market Kurly, also attended NextRound events for three times and successfully raised a total of 50 billion won in funding from famous venture capital firms including U.S.-based Sequoia Capital.

Other names include the country’s leading online to offline (O2O) accommodations service provider Yanolja and online property information provider Zigbang.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]