The scale of intellectual property finance, which supplies funds based on corporations' intellectual property such as patents, technologies, and trademarks, surpassed 12 trillion won at the end of last year. As small and venture companies with insufficient collateral increasingly raise funds by leveraging intellectual property, related finance has been steadily expanding.
The Ministry of Intellectual Property said on the 20th that as of the end of 2025, the outstanding balance of intellectual property finance totaled 12.4 trillion won. That is up 14.8% from 10.8 trillion won at the end of 2024. During the same period, new supply also rose 5.2% from 2.95 trillion won to 3.1 trillion won.
Intellectual property finance is a financing method in which corporations receive funding in the form of collateral loans, guarantees, and investments based on the intellectual property they hold. Its use is growing because it opens funding channels even for corporations relatively lacking tangible assets or creditworthiness.
The overall expansion last year was most influenced by an increase in intellectual property investment among detailed areas. The outstanding balance of intellectual property finance in 2025 increased by 1.6 trillion won from a year earlier, of which 1.3 trillion won came from increased investment. New supply also grew by 160 billion won year over year, with 100 billion won coming from the investment institutional sector.
By field, intellectual property collateral loans saw an increase in new supply but a decrease in the overall outstanding loan balance. Last year, the outstanding loan balance for collateral loans was 2.09 trillion won, down 2.8% from the previous year, while new supply rose 5.6% to 790 billion won. The Ministry of Intellectual Property said that although new originations increased, a larger amount of repayments was reflected due to strengthened soundness management in the financial sector, which it interpreted as the reason for the decline in the balance.
Intellectual property guarantees showed a relatively stable growth trend. As of the end of 2025, the guarantee balance was 4.67 trillion won, up 5.9% from a year earlier, and new supply increased 1.9% to 990 billion won. This is attributed to policy finance institutions such as the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT) and the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) expanding guarantee supply to early-stage startups and innovative small and venture companies.
The most notable change was in the investment institutional sector. The outstanding balance of intellectual property investment surged 30.7% from a year earlier to 5.64 trillion won, and new supply also increased 7.6% to 1.33 trillion won. Intellectual property investment is a method of injecting funds into corporations or projects by evaluating the value of patents or technologies. As investment institutions increasingly view intellectual property as a key criterion for judging future growth potential and business viability, the scale of investment has also expanded.
The government plans to further expand intellectual property finance. It is working to broaden the institutions handling intellectual property collateral loans to include internet-only banks and regional banks, and to introduce a collateral loan fast track to cut loan processing time from the current four weeks to about two weeks. Alongside this, it proposed creating investment funds by expanding the parent fund's patent account and advancing AI-based intellectual property valuation.
Jeong Yeon-woo, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Intellectual Property, said, "In line with the Lee Jae-myung administration's policy of expanding productive finance, intellectual property finance has been steadily increasing," and added, "We will expand intellectual property finance so that small and venture companies with insufficient physical collateral or low credit ratings can raise the necessary funds in a timely manner with only ideas and intellectual property."