Companies that received venture investment from 2012 to 2016 created approximately 30,000 new jobs.

It has been found that startups receiving venture investment are actively expanding employment and achieving outstanding job creation results.

The Small and Medium Business Administration (Administrator Joo Young-seop) announced the results of an analysis on the employment effects of companies that received venture investment, conducted in collaboration with the Korea Employment Information Service, the Korea Venture Capital Association, and Korea Venture Investment.

The Small and Medium Business Administration stated that 2,838 companies received venture investment between 2012 and 2016, creating approximately 30,000 new jobs as of the end of 2016 compared to the previous year. In particular, the employment growth rate of invested companies last year grew by about 20% year-on-year, demonstrating that venture investment is significantly contributing to job growth in startup venture companies. For reference, the employment growth rate in 2014 compared to 2013 was 4.5%.


In the case of Zigbang, a mobile real estate information application, employment, which was only 16 in its second year of operation ('11), increased significantly to 135 by the end of last year as it received steady follow-up investments after receiving its first investment of 500 million won that year. Similarly, B2Link, which operates a marketing platform for domestic and international cosmetic brands in China, began receiving investment in the year of its founding, and its employment scale grew 4.5 times (18 to 81) in just two years.

In particular, it was found that the job creation effect was outstanding when companies within three years of establishment or youth startups received investment. Employment at the end of 2016 for 237 early-stage companies within three years of establishment that received investment from the parent fund last year was 4,550, an increase of 1,759 from 2,791 at the end of 2015 (employment growth rate of 63%).

A separate analysis of youth startups that received investment from the Youth Startup Fund showed that employment increased by 813 people, from 1,125 in 2015 to 1,938 in 2016, demonstrating an outstanding employment growth effect of over 72% within one year of investment.

The Small and Medium Business Administration stated, “Through the injection of a budget of 2.6182 trillion won (June 2005 to April 2017), the Fund of Funds has injected approximately 4.4 times that amount of private capital (11.4509 trillion won) into the venture investment market, and has shown excellent employment growth effects in early-stage and youth startups that have been the focus of support so far.” They added, “Based on the results of this survey, we plan to continuously expand policy funds that invest in youth startups and early-stage companies so that startups and venture companies armed with brilliant ideas and technology can smoothly attract investment funds.”