Korea Development Bank (KDB) and Korea Growth Investment Corporation (K-Growth) selected seven firms, including STIC Investments, Dominus Equity Partners, and Korea Investment Partners, as general partners (GPs) for the second round of mandates under the Public Growth Fund, which will create 1.6 trillion won in sub-funds.
On the 13th, KDB announced the final selections for the second round of the "2026 Public Growth Fund (indirect investment) policy fund." A total of 65 managers applied for this round, producing a competition rate of 9.3 to 1. The selected managers will create sub-funds totaling 1.6 trillion won.
STIC Investments was selected for the scale-up league, which has the largest fund size. The target fund size is 500 billion won. Unlike other leagues, however, there is no hard cap, raising the possibility that the fund could expand to the trillion-won level depending on private capital commitments. This league will focus on scale-up corporations in AI (artificial intelligence) and semiconductors.
In the mid-sized league, three were selected: Dominus Equity Partners, Woori Venture Partners, and Korea Investment Partners. The target fund size ranges from 200 billion to 400 billion won per manager. This league requires investing at least 40% of fund assets in mid-sized and small corporations operating across the 12 key advanced strategic industries, including AI, semiconductors, and bio.
The AI and semiconductor small league (target fund size 100 billion won) will be managed by SL Investment. For the regional-only league (target fund size 50 billion to 100 billion won, total 200 billion won), SBI Investment and KB Securities·EcoPro Partners (co-GP) were selected. These managers plan to focus investments on regional advanced strategic industries and innovative corporations.
With this, the Public Growth Fund's mandates for this year have been completed. Following the selection of 11 managers in the first round, seven more were added this time, bringing the total to 18 managers tasked with operating the Public Growth Fund this year.
The Public Growth Fund is a policy fund created to strengthen global competitiveness in advanced strategic industries such as AI and semiconductors and to foster the venture and innovation ecosystem. The managers plan to complete fund formation within the year and then begin full-scale investment executions targeting advanced strategic industries and venture and innovative corporations.
KDB said, "Through continued communication and collaboration between the government and the private sector, we have completed the selection of managers in the first year of the Public Growth Fund," and added, "We will use policy finance as a primer to guide private capital into advanced strategic industries and support swift investment in innovative corporations."