This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 1:50 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2025.
Venture capital Stonebridge Ventures exited successfully from Green Optics following Nota, which recently went public. Stonebridge Ventures sold part of its stake in Nota, which listed earlier this month, recovering its investment at 65 times its value, and it appears to have recovered about five times its value on the Green Optics investment. Including Livsmed, which is scheduled to go public soon, it is expected to be a warm year-end.
On the 20th, sources in the venture capital industry said Stonebridge Ventures sold all of its unrestricted shares on the day Green Optics was listed on the 17th. The selling price is understood to have been in the high-30,000-won range per share.
Green Optics is a company that possesses full optical process technologies such as lens processing, polishing, coating, alignment and electronic control. It produces high-performance optical materials and products used across advanced industries such as defense, aerospace, semiconductors and displays. It was listed on the KOSDAQ market on the 17th. The offering price was 16,000 won, and the market capitalization at listing was 187.2 billion won.
Through investments in 2021, Stonebridge Ventures secured 4.19% of equity in Stonebridge DNA Innovation Growth Investment Fund and 2.51% in Stonebridge TK Bridging PEF. At the time of investment, Green Optics was valued at about 60 billion won.
On the day of its listing, Green Optics recorded a high of 55,000 won, rising to about three times the offering price. Although the closing price that day ended at 22,850 won, Stonebridge Ventures' shares were not subject to lock-up, so it appears they were able to recover them at relatively high intraday prices that day.
Stonebridge Ventures earlier achieved an exit from the AI technology startup Nota at about a 65-fold multiple. On the 3rd, when Nota listed, it sold 840,000 unrestricted shares and recovered about 20 billion won. Considering Nota's company value was estimated at 7.5 billion won at the time of early investment, this was a jackpot exit. With the Green Optics investment, it has succeeded in consecutive exits twice.
With Stonebridge Ventures' successful investment in Green Optics, the financial investors (FIs) who invested alongside it are also expected to have good results. Along with Stonebridge Capital, Green Optics is known to have received investments from SBI Investment KOREA, T Investment and K2 Investment. Because some of the equity they hold was not subject to lock-up agreements, it is estimated they achieved exits at levels similar to Stonebridge Ventures.
As the IPO market has recently emerged from stagnation, the outlook for planned exits is also good. Stonebridge Ventures began investing in Livsmed in 2016 with a company valuation of about 30 billion won and made a total of eight investments using four funds. It holds 13.12% of Livsmed's equity, the highest among the FIs.
Livsmed is currently preparing to go public and is expected to submit a securities registration statement soon after passing the Korea Exchange (KRX) preliminary listing review. The desired offering price band is 44,000 to 55,000 won. Based on the lower end of the band, the market capitalization after listing is expected to reach 1 trillion won. Stonebridge Ventures is expected to be able to exit with returns of more than 30 times.