이 기사는 2022년 06월 10일 08:03 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Talents from global investment banks are moving to South Korean unicorn startups.

According to industry sources, Shin Kwon-ho, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs, has recently decided to work as the chief financial officer (CFO) at Naver’s affiliate LINE Games.

There had been many cases where investment bankers move to private equity firms or their rival investment banks. Yet, a growing number of investment bankers take key posts at local unicorn companies in recent years.

This has started when Bae Dong-keun, who previously led JP Morgan's IB unit in Hong Kong, moved to Krafton, the developer of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) as CFO. Krafton made its stock market debut three years after Bae joined the company.

In 2019, Kim Jong-hoon, who worked for Morgan Stanley, became the CFO of Kurly, the operator of grocery delivery platform Market Kurly. Kim is currently leading Kurly’s initial public offering (IPO) process. Yoon Jun-ho, who worked for Morgan Stanley, moved to global entertainment technology and localization company Iyuno-SDI and Steve Hong moved from Goldman Sachs to Korea’s major fashion platform Musinsa.

Korean startups are scouting financial market specialists for listings and fundraisings as ample liquidity is flooding into the firms. Investment bankers are attracted by stock options and share grants at startups, just as Wall Street’s young investment bankers move to tech and startups in the U.S.

A source in the investment banking industry said that the trend is likely to continue for a while as capital market experts are pursuing more money. (Reporting by Byung-keun Kam)