South Korea's Financial Services Commission said it will actively support the National Growth Fund by increasing its direct investment from 15 trillion won depending on investment demand.

Kwon Dae-young (권대영), vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission, made the remarks on Wednesday at a meeting on supporting the venture and innovation ecosystem under the National Growth Fund. "The National Growth Fund's support for the venture and innovation ecosystem will be completely different from existing venture and policy finance," he said.

Kwon said the commission will strategically manage a large pool of funds of 15 trillion won plus alpha for direct investment to match funding needs such as individual companies' growth stages. He said the overall scale of direct investment would also be expanded further if investment demand is sufficient.

Indirect investment worth 35 trillion won will be created through programmes such as a scale-up fund, an ultra-long-term fund, a regional fund and an exit-market fund.

The commission also plans to participate actively in deals whose promise has been verified by the market. It also plans to build a system for selecting managers who can drive increases in corporate value, and an evaluation framework for managers that considers failure experience and new perspectives.

"We will create a venture ecosystem where companies with innovative ideas and technologies no longer stumble in the death valley," Kwon said.

Kim Sung-sik (김성식), vice chairman of the National Economic Advisory Council, said scale-up investment to nurture South Korea's representative companies 20 years from now is far from sufficient. He stressed that the National Growth Fund must fill the gap.

The Financial Services Commission plans to announce a final package of measures to strengthen support for the venture and innovation ecosystem under the National Growth Fund in April.