Unlisted investments also in a 'bull market'... Venture investment in the first half of this year reached a record 8.9 trillion won

[For more diverse corporate information on startups mentioned in this article, please visit the Unicorn Factory big data platform 'Data Lab'.]

New venture investment in Korea reached a record high of 8.8676 trillion won in the first half of this year, representing a 54.3% increase compared to last year. The number of companies that secured investment also rose by 17% year-on-year to 2,296 firms, suggesting some alleviation of the phenomenon where investment was concentrated in specific companies.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced these findings on the 19th in its 'Trends in New Venture Investment and Venture Fund Establishment for the First Half of 2026'. Based on first-half data, venture investment peaked at 7.6442 trillion won in 2022 before plummeting to around 4 trillion won in 2023 due to factors such as interest rate hikes. After showing a gradual recovery trend, it has now surpassed the previous record.

The amount of venture funds established, which can serve as an indicator of future venture investment trends, also reached 8.4366 trillion won, a 33% increase from the same period last year, marking the second-highest level for any first half on record.

The sector receiving the most investment was ICT services, accounting for 21.0% (1.86 trillion won) of total investments. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups explained this as "a reflection of investments in fields utilizing AI (artificial intelligence) technologies." This was followed by electrical machinery and equipment at 17.3% (1.5359 trillion won), and bio-medicine and healthcare at 17.0% (1.5041 trillion won).

The sector with the highest year-on-year growth rate was ICT manufacturing (144.3%). Electrical machinery and equipment (90.4%) and ICT services (62.2%) also saw significant increases. This is attributed to large-scale investments of over 100 billion won being poured into deep-tech startups in fields such as AI semiconductors, robotics, and AI.

However, investment in the game industry fell by 76.3% compared to the previous year, making it the only sector to show a decline. Its share of total venture investment dropped to just 0.5%. This is interpreted as reflecting the overall difficulties faced by the domestic game industry, including declining game usage rates, rising development costs, and growth in China's game industry.

By company age, investment in early-stage startups of three years or less, which had been sluggish in the first quarter, showed signs of recovery. The investment amount reached 1.8282 trillion won, a 56.4% increase from the same period last year. This recovery was driven by deep-tech startups in AI, semiconductors, and robotics securing large-scale investments of over 10 billion won even at their early stages.

The number of startups aged three years or less that secured investment also rose to 643 firms, an increase of 28.9% (144 firms). The Ministry of SMEs and Startups emphasized, "We will continue policy support to revitalize early-stage investment, such as doubling the fund of funds (Korea venture fund) contribution to the startup early stage field to 200 billion won compared to last year."

Investment in startups aged 3–7 years reached 2.3757 trillion won, a 59.3% increase from the same period last year, while investment in companies older than seven years rose by 51.0% to 4.6637 trillion won.

By region, venture investment in non-metropolitan areas surged by 104.7%, surpassing the growth rate of metropolitan area venture investment (49.9%). In particular, Daejeon's venture investment scale reached 435.9 billion won, the largest among non-metropolitan regions. This is believed to be the result of securing large-scale investments in new industry deep-tech fields such as aerospace and life sciences.

The amount of venture funds established, which can gauge the scale of future venture investment ammunition, reached 8.4336 trillion won, a 33% increase from the same period last year, marking the second-highest level for any first half on record.

However, while policy financial institution contributions increased by 58.3%, private contributions rose only by 28.1%, causing the share of policy finance to rise to 19.3%. The share of policy finance had averaged around 15% since reaching 26.0% in 2020, when fund of funds (Korea venture fund) significantly expanded its contribution scale to foster a second venture boom.

Kim Bong-deok, Venture Policy Officer at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "Both venture investment and fund establishment increased significantly in the first half of this year, indicating that the domestic venture investment market has entered a full-fledged growth phase." He added, "We will strengthen the role of fund of funds (Korea venture fund) to ensure that expanded venture investment leads not only to the growth of venture startups but also to the creation of youth jobs and regional economic revitalization, while steadily promoting policy support such as tax benefits."

[MoneyToday startup media platform Unicorn Factory]