이 기사는 2019년 10월 23일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korea's private equity (PE) firm STIC Investments and its spun-off venture capital (VC) arm STIC Ventures are likely to enhance collaboration on their overseas investment.

On October 14, STIC Ventures and STIC Investments invested 100 billion dollar in Indian startup Dunzo. This marks STIC Ventures' first co-investment with STIC Investments. Dunzo is the Bangalore-based hyper-local delivery startup, in which Google invested 12 million dollars in 2017.

STIC Ventures and STIC Investments have reportedly cooperated from the review process of the investment. Their cooperation has had positive effects as they could share information they have obtained.

STIC Ventures was spun off from STIC Investments in July 2018. After that, STIC Investments is in charge of PE fund investment while STIC Ventures is responsible for VC investment.

Some may see there is nothing special about their joint investment, but it wasn't an easy decision considering different investing styles between them. For example, there are stark differences in investment strategies and decision-making. While the VC arm pursues investing in early-stage and risky assets, the PE firm seeks to generate more stable returns.

"STIC Investments and STIC Ventures shared information on Dunzo deal and that smoothly led to the co-investment. We thought there is no need for us to invest separately," said a STIC official.

"Although each has different perspectives when assessing a company, it was a good thing that we could share our opinions freely as we were under the same umbrella," said a STIC Ventures official.

STIC Ventures and STIC Investments plan to expand its joint investment abroad. Both companies expect they can reduce overseas investment risks by multi-aspect analysis. "I think we should expand co-investments when investing in overseas markets. Both may have difference views, but the cooperation process itself creates synergy," said one STIC Ventures official.

STIC Ventures' latest investment is particularly meaningful as Dunzo is its first Indian portfolio company and it is seeing a high growth potential for the startup. STIC Ventures sees Dunzo has a potential to become a next Gojek, Indonesia's first unicorn.

The hyper-local on-demand delivery services market in India is seeing a rapid increase in demand as the household income rises steadily. STIC Ventures forecasts that India's market size is expected to grow close to that of the U.S. and China.

The four-year old startup Dunzo provides on-demand hyper-local delivery services using motorbikes. It delivers a wide range of products, including everything from groceries to medical supplies. The app-based company also operates a pick-up and drop-off service, along with a bike taxi service launched last year.

(By reporter Ahn Kyung-ju)