이 기사는 2020년 02월 27일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korea’s Agricultural Policy Insurance & Finance Service (APFS), a public institution under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) and an operator of a government-backed fund of funds, is expanding funding for innovative startups in the food and agricultural sector.

The APFS has launched on Tuesday its annual investment program, in which government money worth 42 billion won will be allocated through its fund of funds. PE and VC firms selected by the institution are supposed to raise capital worth more than 111 billion won in totals for their new funds with a focus on food and agricultural businesses.

The investment program is divided into several parts based on the type of targeted investees. Especially, the APFS plans to allocate 21.5 billion won to a fund – named Stepping Stone Fund – which is for follow-on investments in food and agricultural companies that have great potential to create jobs.

The move came after an announcement by the ministry earlier this month that it would launch such a fund to expand funding for innovative startups as well as to facilitate research and development of smart agricultural solutions.

This is part of the ministry’s efforts to create more jobs in the agricultural sector. In 2019, the number of jobs in the sector increased by 55,000 to nearly 1.4 million, a record high in 20 years. The ministry is aiming to maintain the upward trend going forward.

“Stepping Stone Fund has been added to this year’s investment program, through which we plan to make follow-on investments,” an APFS official said. “We expect many firms to submit proposals.”

The APFS plans to receive proposals until March 31 before announcing the final results at the end of April.

The fund of funds run by the APFS has more than 1.17 trillion won under management. So far, it has made investments in 72 funds that invested in 418 businesses in the food and agricultural sector.

(By reporter Lee Kwang-ho)