The Ministry of SMEs and Startups joined hands with leading venture capital (VC) firms in Silicon Valley to help Korean startups attract global investment and expand overseas.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) said on the 26th that it hosted the "Silicon Valley venture investment meetup" in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, on the 25th (local time), chaired by Lee Jae-myung, the president. At the event, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on investment cooperation was signed between the National Pension Service (NPS) and major Silicon Valley VCs, and a roundtable was held to discuss ways to cooperate on the Korea-U.S. venture investment ecosystem.
Global VCs managing a total of $300 billion (about 439 trillion won) in assets, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and New Enterprise Associates, attended the event.
Using this MOU as a starting point, the National Pension Service (NPS) and the six VCs agreed to expand strategic cooperation with Korea's innovation ecosystem and establish a long-term cooperation framework to identify promising startups and create global investment opportunities. The National Pension Service (NPS) also plans to strengthen its network with Silicon Valley's top VCs and draw up an action plan to expand investment attraction for Korean startups.
At the subsequent roundtable, participants discussed global venture investment trends, promising investment fields such as AI, investment cases in Korean startups, and ways to improve the Korea-U.S. venture investment environment. The attending VCs, noting the growth potential of AI, highly evaluated Korea's strong technical talent and entrepreneurial capacity and gave a positive assessment of potential cooperation with Korean startups.
Alfred Lin, co-CEO of Sequoia Capital, which has made early investments in numerous big tech companies such as Google and Nvidia over the past 54 years in Silicon Valley, said, "I was recently impressed by K-food and the culture of kindness during my visit to Korea," adding, "It is important to support startups to foster the spirit of challenge among young entrepreneurs."
Martin Casado, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, the largest VC in Silicon Valley, said, "Andreessen Horowitz has invested in more than 20 Korea-related corporations in areas such as Robotics and biohealth, and we plan to expand our partnership with Korea through the recent opening of our Korea office," adding, "If Korea's hardware and manufacturing competitiveness is combined with the United States' software and AI capabilities, it will greatly benefit both countries."
Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst, said, "Sufficient capital is important for startup growth, so expanding capital in the venture ecosystem is necessary, and Korea has top-tier automated robot factories, so it should actively promote nurturing startups in this field," adding, "This could be supported by creating innovation clusters for cooperation between large corporations and startups."
Noh Yong-seok, first vice minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS), said, "The VCs that participated in this Silicon Valley meetup are among the world's top VCs, and the fact that they gathered in one place to discuss cooperation with the Korean venture ecosystem is highly meaningful in terms of our venture ecosystem's global connection," adding, "We will continue to expand policy support for Korean startups' overseas expansion and attraction of global investment."