The Ministry of SMEs and Startups unveiled the plan on Friday, dubbed a "Korean IQT," at a strategy meeting on fostering future security innovators held at the presidential office. The vehicle will invest directly in promising firms working in fields such as artificial intelligence and drones.
IQT, the independent nonprofit the CIA chartered in 1999 to close the technology gap between Washington and Silicon Valley, has bankrolled now-prominent players including data-analytics giant Palantir. Seoul intends to replicate that template at home.
The Korean fund will be established as a subsidiary of Korea Venture Investment Corp., with the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and other agencies co-investing.
The ministry and the defense procurement agency will each commit 25 billion won to reach the initial 50 billion won, then secure fresh capital annually over the following four years.
Given the sensitivity of the sector, the government will draft legal grounds to keep investor and fund details confidential, impose confidentiality obligations on staff, and restrict the appointment of foreign nationals and dual citizens.
Returns on government money will be ploughed entirely back into reinvestment, the ministry said.
The emphasis on secrecy lands at an awkward moment for the ministry, which last week disclosed that the personal data and business ideas of about 5,000 first-round winners of its "Startup for All" program had leaked through an unauthorized channel.
Police have since opened a preliminary probe, and the data was found to have escaped not through a direct hack of government systems but through a partner firm supporting the program.
The episode has dogged Prime Minister-nominee Han Seong-sook, who championed the program as SMEs minister. Han apologized over the leak of personal information and start-up ideas belonging to thousands of participants, telling reporters she felt the weight of her responsibility as the minister in charge.
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