This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 3:45 p.m. on Feb. 10, 2026.
Saehan Ventures (hereafter Saehan Ventures), a venture capital (VC) firm that discovered unicorn corporations early on such as Coupang, Woowa Brothers (Baemin), and Viva Republica (Toss) and had been on a roll, is struggling in the policy fund market. Following last year's setback with Korea Growth Investment Corporation (K-Growth), it also came up short this year in the Mother Fund contribution program.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 10th, Saehan Ventures recently failed to make the shortlist (qualified candidates) of general partners (GPs) for the "Mother Fund Ministry of Science and ICT account rolling contribution program" selected by Korea Venture Investment Corporation. It came about a month after it threw its hat in the ring for the artificial intelligence (AI) and software as a service (SaaS) institutional sector GPs in January.
The Mother Fund Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) account AI·SaaS institutional sector drew strong interest from domestic VCs because the investment scope spans all of AI and the contribution amount of 45 billion won equals half of the planned fund size of 90 billion won. Besides Saehan Ventures, GNTech Venture Capital, Friend Investment Partners, Harang Technology Investment, and others applied, pushing the competition ratio above 8-to-1.
Saehan Ventures was considered a strong GP candidate. That is because, as a VC that discovered and invested in Coupang, Woowa Brothers, Viva Republica, and Krafton, it was regarded as having the most stellar track record among the applicant VCs. Last year, it also broadened its AI investments by investing in the 3D AI video solution corporations Cinnamon.
Korea Venture Investment Corporation was said to have rated Saehan Ventures' management capabilities themselves as low. Although it invested early in leading startups in Korea and delivered exit results, the view was that its management strategy followed the portfolio of the U.S. VC Altos Ventures rather than directly sourcing those corporations.
Changes in investment personnel also counted against it. In the past, Saehan Ventures' investing was grounded in the connection between former CEO Lee Jeong-woo and Altos Ventures CEO Han Kim (both Stanford University alumni in the United States), but the current Saehan Ventures CEO is now Park Yeon-chae. Core investment manager Director An Taek-yeong was also said to have left the company.
There is a view that Saehan Ventures now has little choice but to adjust its fundraising strategy. After Park Yeon-chae, formerly head of research at Kiwoom Securities, became the new head of Saehan Ventures and pursued an external expansion strategy into the public contribution market by challenging the Korea Growth Investment Corporation (K-Growth) contribution program, it suffered back-to-back disappointments.
In November last year, Saehan Ventures drew industry attention by submitting a proposal for the "K-Content Media Strategic Fund No. 2" contribution program operated by Korea Growth Investment Corporation (K-Growth). Although it is a first-generation VC established in 1989, it had so far conducted fundraising centered on private limited partners. It was also its first challenge in a policy fund contribution program.
However, Saehan Ventures was eliminated from the K-Content Media Strategic Fund No. 2 contribution program as well. Instances such as borrowing directly under the company's name to make general partner commitment investments and receiving a corrective order from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups for violating the mandatory investment ratio led policy fund contributors, who emphasize conservative management, to turn away.
In particular, according to the venture investment company electronic disclosure system, starting in Aug. 2022, Saehan Ventures received three corrective orders solely for violating the mandatory investment ratio. The cause was failure to meet the 20% mandatory investment ratio by the day three years after the formation of a venture investment partnership. The correction was not completed until the end of 2024.
Some say that although, since Park took office, the firm is strengthening its internal control system and reorganizing the organization, it still needs more "accumulation of trust" to meet the standards of conservative policy fund contributors. There is also an assessment that a challenge this year for the Mother Fund Ministry of SMEs and Startups account contribution program will not be easy.
A VC industry official said, "Under CEO Park Yeon-chae, the firm is seeking to transform into a mainstream VC, but it appears there is still a large gap between market expectations and the manager's reality," adding, "If it fails to prove its internal control capabilities and independent deal-sourcing ability, securing policy funds could be difficult."