KB Financial Group said on Saturday it had formed a 160 billion won "KB Deeptech Scale-up Fund" to invest in deep tech companies in areas such as AI and robotics that aim to become a "K-Nvidia".

The fund was created with 75 billion won from the Korea Fund of Funds and 85 billion won from affiliates including KB Kookmin Bank, KB Securities, KB Insurance and KB Investment. KB Investment is the fund manager. It plans to attract additional outside limited partners by the first half of the year to expand the fund to about 200 billion won.

KB Investment was selected in September last year as the manager for the scale-up deep tech segment of the "NEXT UNICORN PROJECT" under the second regular Korea Fund of Funds capital commitment programme for 2025, overseen by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

The fund aims to drive innovation and growth at deep tech companies with technological capabilities through large-scale investments. Key investment targets span nine areas: system semiconductors; bio and health; future mobility; eco-friendly and energy; robots; cybersecurity and networks; aerospace and marine; next-generation nuclear power; and quantum technology. It is structured to invest at least 10 billion won per company to support commercialisation of technology and overseas expansion.

The group is also overhauling internal systems in parallel to continuously expand productive finance. KB Financial created a new CIB Market division to manage corporate finance and capital markets in an integrated way, and reorganised dedicated productive-finance teams across its affiliates.

KB Kookmin Bank operates a Growth Finance Promotion Headquarters and an Advanced Strategic Industry Review Unit, KB Securities runs a Productive Finance Promotion Team, and KB Asset Management runs an Advanced Strategic Industry Management Office. It also expanded strategic-industry specialists and reflected productive-finance items in branch evaluation indicators.

A KB Financial official said it had swiftly secured commitments and completed formation of the fund based on a complete portfolio of banking, securities, asset management and investment with investment banking competitiveness proven in the market. The official added that it would provide full support so that "K-startups" can grow into "K-Nvidia", and serve as a catalyst for securing new growth engines and revitalising the venture ecosystem.