This article was published on Sept. 5, 2025, at 2:30 p.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
Venture capital (VC) firm FuturePlay is expanding its business area once again as a private equity fund manager. After transitioning from an accelerator (startup planner) to a venture investment association managing venture capital, it has recently challenged to establish an institutional private placement investment fund.
According to the VC industry on the 5th, FuturePlay has recently included the establishment and investment of an 'institutional private placement investment fund' and 'operation and management as a general partner (GP)' in its new business objectives. The company has reportedly completed changes to its articles of incorporation following board approval and special resolutions at a shareholders' meeting.
The so-called institutional private placement investment fund is a private equity fund in which only institutional investors, such as pension funds, insurance companies, and securities firms, participate. Notable managers of institutional private placement investment funds in Korea include MBK Partners, STIC Investments, and IMM Private Equity (PE).
Analysis suggests that FuturePlay, which opened in 2013 as an engineer startup planning and incubation firm, has begun its transformation into a hybrid investment company managing private equity funds as well. Earlier, in December 2023, the company became the first VC to expand into an AC in Korea.
Expectations have emerged that FuturePlay will pursue a more aggressive and diversified investment strategy based on institutional funds. While the investment targets for startup investment associations and venture investment associations are limited to startups and venture companies, institutional private placement funds have relatively few restrictions on investment asset classes.
A contact in the VC industry noted, "There has been no case of expanding from an AC to a private equity fund manager until now." He continued, "If FuturePlay forms a private equity fund and qualifies for management, it can theoretically conduct everything from pre-startup support to scale-up investments and direct investments after going public."
FuturePlay's activities are also in line with the trend of forming buyout funds for small and medium-sized enterprises in the overall VC industry. In addition to reducing risks in early-stage investments, rapid performance creation is possible through capital restructuring (recap), prompting major VCs in Korea to continuously push for the establishment of private equity (PE) divisions.
Some VCs are already achieving results. Company K Partners, which established a PE division in the second half of 2022, pursued the acquisition of management rights for children's clothing brands and recently participated in convertible bond (CB) investments in Goodai Global alongside major domestic private equity firms like IMM PE and JKL Partners.
Some speculate that FuturePlay's expansion strategy is aimed at preparing for another public listing. FuturePlay raised funds through a pre-initial public offering (IPO) investment in 2022 while preparing to enter the stock market, but it encountered delays due to a contraction in the venture investment market and repeated poor performance.
In fact, FuturePlay's results last year recorded sales of 19.6 billion won and an operating profit of 397.1 million won. This contrasts with the 57 billion won in sales and 45.8 billion won in operating profit recorded in 2021, just before the pre-IPO funding, showing a decrease of 66% in sales and 99% in operating profit over three years. In 2023, it even incurred losses.
Meanwhile, FuturePlay stated, "It is true that we are considering forming a private equity fund with the goal of diversifying investments into various asset classes beyond startups and venture companies," but added, "However, there are no specific decisions made yet regarding the size, timing, or operational plans of the fund."