Survey on sales, employment, finance, R&D, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution
The number of venture companies increased by 878 at the end of 2018 compared to the previous year.
42.6% of venture companies are active in the 4th industrial revolution.


On the 30th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Venture Business Association announced the results of a detailed survey of venture businesses as of the end of 2018.

As of the end of 2018, the number of venture companies was 36,065, an increase of 878 compared to 35,187 in 2017.

The most common major among CEOs was engineering at 52.4%, followed by business administration and economics at 23.6% and humanities and social sciences at 9.3%.

At the end of 2018, venture companies' total sales reached 192 trillion won, ranking second among domestic businesses. The average sales per venture company increased by 7.9%, from 4.93 billion won in 2017 to 5.32 billion won in 2018.

As of the end of 2018, the total number of employees at venture companies was 715,000, which is higher than the combined number of employees at the four largest conglomerates (Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motors, and LG) of 668,000, showing that they account for a significant portion of domestic employment. The average number of employees per venture company increased by 5.3%, from 18.8 in 2017 to 19.8 in 2018.

Venture companies at the end of 2018 △ Average assets increased from 4.98 billion won in 2017 to 5.77 billion won in 2018 △ Average debt increased from 2.7 billion won in 2017 to 3.06 billion won in 2018 △ Average capital increased from 2.28 billion won in 2017 to 2.7 billion won in 2018 △ Equity ratio increased from 45.7% in 2017 to 46.9% in 2018.

At the end of 2018, venture companies' R&D expenses reached 325 million won, representing a 5.5% R&D-to-sales ratio. This figure is higher than that of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (0.7%) and large corporations (1.5%).

Additionally, 42.6% of venture companies were found to be active in fields related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. By sector, these included new materials (9.9%), IoT (9.4%), and big data (8.7%). Fourth Industrial Revolution-related companies were found to have higher business performance than non-Fourth Industrial Revolution companies.

This survey revealed that venture companies are showing continuous growth and are actively investing in technology development activities to respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.