South Korea launches W100b 'K-Founder Fund,' expands startup support to overseas Koreans

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups is expanding its startup support program to include overseas Koreans and international students living abroad. It is also establishing a dedicated fund worth 100 billion won ($67.5 million), through which successful Korean entrepreneurs and investors overseas will back the next generation of founders.

The ministry hosted "K-Founders Connect in Silicon Valley" at the Startup Venture Campus in Silicon Valley, California, on Friday (local time). About 70 people attended, including First Vice Minister Noh Yong-seok, startup representatives, overseas Koreans, local international students, Korean-American venture capitalists and startup support organizations.

At the event, the ministry announced the "Startup for All Global Project," a program to support overseas Koreans and international students in launching businesses abroad, and held the inaugural ceremony for the K-Founder Fund.

The Startup for All Global Project extends the ministry's existing domestic-focused startup support to Koreans living abroad. Its core aim is to help them build businesses rooted in local markets overseas.

The project was prompted by a suggestion made at the "AI Connect Summit" held in Singapore in March, when an international student called for policy support to allow young Koreans abroad to pursue entrepreneurship.

The ministry plans to select 80 promising aspiring and active entrepreneurs across four regions: Silicon Valley, New York, Singapore and India. Those selected will receive online and in-person mentoring, tailored incubation support and startup activity funding, along with information on local regulations, legal matters and market trends.

Korean entrepreneurs with overseas startup experience — including Lee Jeong-hee, chief executive of Primer USA; Oh Seon-ho, co-founder of Osteogentech; Kim Ju-yun, CEO of Dot; and Lee Seung-hun, CEO of Ringle — will serve as expert mentors. They plan to share their experiences in acquiring local customers, generating sales and securing investment with aspiring founders. Local accelerators and venture capital firms will also support commercialization strategies and fundraising.

The ministry said it will leverage overseas hubs such as K-Startup Centers to connect participants with technology demonstration opportunities, business partner searches and investment, helping Korean startups abroad establish themselves in local markets.

The K-Founder Fund, set to reach approximately 100 billion won, was officially launched at the event. It is the first overseas Korean diaspora fund the government has established jointly — through its Fund of Funds — with successful Korean entrepreneurs and investors based abroad. The goal is to create a self-sustaining cycle in which the capital and experience of successful sunbae entrepreneurs are reinvested in the growth of the next generation of founders at home and abroad.

The fund's official name is the ASQ Pioneer Fund and will be managed by Ballon Capital. Kim Dong-shin, co-founder and CEO of Sendbird — Silicon Valley's first Korean-founded business-to-business unicorn — will oversee operations.

"We will conduct networking events and investor relations sessions in partnership with Korean communities including the United Korean Founders," Kim said. "We will support domestic startups in making a stable entry into global markets," he added.

Ahead of the main event, the ministry also held a "Global K-Venture Innovation Roundtable" to hear concerns from Korean venture companies and startups operating in the United States. Representatives from the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, the Stanford University accelerator and the Korean-American entrepreneur network UKF attended and discussed policy support measures covering investment and technology financing.

Jung Da-hyang, a researcher at Stanford University, introduced the "Stanford Consumer Accelerator" program, which helps Korean consumer-goods startups in sectors such as K-beauty and K-food establish themselves in the United States. The ministry plans to expand support for promising Korean companies entering the US market by fostering collaboration between the Startup Venture Campus Silicon Valley and the Stanford program.

Where government overseas support had previously focused on helping domestically founded companies break into foreign markets, the new initiative will provide assistance from the earliest stage — when international students and overseas Koreans are first starting businesses locally. Particularly key will be whether connecting the capital and experience of Korean sunbae entrepreneurs and investors with the next generation can move beyond one-off support to build a genuinely self-sustaining cycle within the overseas Korean startup ecosystem.

"The Startup for All Global Project is the first startup support initiative targeting overseas Koreans," First Vice Minister Noh said. "It is significant in that we have put in place a tailored support framework for our entrepreneurial talent active abroad." He added that the ministry would "build a self-sustaining cycle that connects the capital and experience of successful Korean entrepreneurs and investors overseas with the challenges of new founders, drawing on US-based venture capital and the K-Founder Fund."