This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 1:25 p.m. on Mar. 11, 2026.
Atinum High-Growth Corporate Investment Partnership, called the "legendary fund" in Korea's venture capital (VC) industry for its early investment in Dunamu, has completed its final liquidation procedures. It distributed more than 1 trillion won to limited partners (LPs), five times the committed capital, and the manager, Atinum Investment, is understood to have received more than 200 billion won in performance fees.
On the 11th, according to the VC industry and the Financial Supervisory Service, Atinum Investment recently completed the liquidation procedures of the Atinum High-Growth Corporate Investment Partnership. It comes 12 years after it raised a 203 billion won venture investment fund in 2014 with capital from the National Pension Service (NPS), The Korean Teachers' Credit Union (The-K), and Korea Post.
The Atinum High-Growth Corporate Investment Partnership drew early attention as an early investment fund in Dunamu, well known as the operator of the virtual-asset exchange "Upbit." When Atinum Investment began in earnest to recover investments from the Atinum High-Growth Corporate Investment Partnership in 2021, Dunamu's valuation jumped to 20 trillion won.
What stands out in this liquidation is the overwhelming return metrics. Atinum Investment received a total of 218.7 billion won in performance fees from this single fund. Performance fees are the gains a VC earns when it exceeds a benchmark return before or upon fund liquidation, and in this case the performance fees surpassed the fund's committed capital (203 billion won).
A VC industry official said, "It will be hard for a domestic VC to see performance fees exceed committed capital going forward," adding, "It's the result of finding good targets in the mid-2010s when new industries like platforms and Blockchain emerged, and exiting during the COVID boom when the venture market was hot."
In fact, the year after it began recovering its Dunamu investment, in 2022 Atinum Investment booked 78.4 billion won as performance fees. In 2023, performance fees jumped to 107 billion won. Notably, Executive Vice President Kim Je-uk, who sourced and invested in Dunamu, received about 48.6 billion won in bonuses over 2022 and 2023.
The industry estimates that Atinum Investment's recovery from its Dunamu investment far exceeded 600 billion won. Considering it invested about 6 billion won starting in 2016, it achieved a nearly 100-fold return. At the time of the initial investment, Dunamu's valuation is said to have been around 50 billion won.
Beyond Dunamu, most of the major targets Atinum Investment backed through the Atinum High-Growth Corporate Investment Partnership also produced results. LigaChem Biosciences, Kakao Games, and Pearl Abyss are representative examples, and Atinum Investment achieved about a 10-fold return from these portfolios as well.
Atinum Investment ultimately distributed 491.5% of the Atinum High-Growth Corporate Investment Partnership's committed capital to LPs. The amount returned to LPs alone exceeded about 1.0039 trillion won, and the total recovery including the manager's performance fees surpassed 1.22 trillion won. The multiple on invested capital (MOIC) was tallied at 6 times.
Another VC industry official said, "A one-fund strategy that concentrated firepower in a single large fund and provided follow-on from the early stage to promising corporations also proved effective," adding, "There are portfolios like ZIGBANG CO. where exits have been modest, but the Dunamu exit alone already made it a legendary fund."
The liquidation results of the Atinum High-Growth Corporate Investment Partnership are expected to have a positive impact on Atinum Investment's new fundraising this year. Atinum Investment is said to be aiming to create a venture fund larger than "Atinum Growth Partnership 2023" (860 billion won), which it set up in 2023.
An Atinum Investment official said, "With a one-fund strategy, we managed risk in a stable manner while balancing early-stage and growth-stage corporations to maximize returns," adding, "Above all, we were able to deliver strong results thanks to outstanding portfolio companies and LPs who placed long-term trust in us."