Mirae Asset Venture Investment Research
Investment Thesis
Mirae Asset Venture Investment Co., Ltd. is South Korea's oldest and one of its largest institutional venture capital firms, founded in 1999 as the venture investment arm of the Mirae Asset Financial Group. The firm has been listed on KOSDAQ since March 2019 (ticker: 100790.KQ / A100790), giving it permanent balance-sheet capital rather than a traditional fund-cycle structure. Its thesis is broad and generalist rather than narrowly focused: back category-defining Korean technology and consumer companies early, hold through multiple rounds, and support them through IPO or strategic acquisition. As a listed vehicle backed by one of Asia's largest asset managers, it also plays a policy-adjacent role, and was recently highlighted in Korean financial press as a top beneficiary of the government's new national AI investment push (semiconductors, AI infrastructure, and bio are explicit national priorities the firm's portfolio already overlaps with).
Sector Focus
The portfolio spans more than 30 sub-sectors per third-party trackers, but the areas of deepest, most repeated conviction are:
- Semiconductors and chip design (SiFive, Rebellions, SEMIFIVE)
- Consumer e-commerce and marketplaces (Market Kurly, Musinsa, Bucketplace/Ohouse, StyleShare)
- Digital media and content platforms (RIDI e-book/webtoon platform)
- Biotech and life sciences (4D Molecular Therapeutics)
- Edtech (Mathpresso/QANDA, Class101)
- Gaming and esports (Gen.G Esports)
- Enterprise/productivity software (recent investment in Tynapse, April 2026)
Stage Focus
Mirae Asset Venture Investment invests across the full lifecycle but is most active at Seed through Series B, with selective participation in later rounds (Series C/D) for existing portfolio companies and occasional pre-IPO strategic rounds. Public trackers show it as a first institutional check-writer on a number of now-unicorn companies (SiFive, RIDI, Market Kurly).
Check Size
Disclosed round sizes suggest meaningful conviction bets rather than spray-and-pray: it invested a cumulative ~36.3 billion KRW (~$27M) into SEMIFIVE across rounds including a 9 billion KRW (~$6.5M) seed check, and ~12 billion KRW (~$9M) into Rebellions across Series A and B. This points to typical initial checks in the low-to-high single-digit millions of dollars, scaling meaningfully on conviction follow-ons.
Lead Tendency
The firm has led or co-led numerous rounds domestically (seed lead in SEMIFIVE, Series A/B in Rebellions, Series B/C in Bucketplace), consistent with a "leads" or "both" posture depending on stage and syndicate composition.
Recent Activity
Fund status is actively deploying. The Mirae Asset Group overall raised a ~200 billion KRW "National Participation Growth Fund" in May 2026 tied to Korea's national growth initiative (AI, semiconductors, energy, bio), and the broader group has signaled plans to open a venture arm in San Francisco to deepen exposure to Silicon Valley AI (having already backed Cohere and Perplexity AI at the group level). At the venture-investment-entity level, the most recent tracked portfolio addition is Tynapse (business/productivity software), dated April 2026.
Portfolio Highlights
Public trackers credit the firm with 129+ portfolio companies (as of mid-2024, more since), 3 unicorns (SiFive, RIDI, Market Kurly), 39 IPOs, and 11 acquisitions. Nvidia's 2026 strategic investment in RISC-V leader SiFive was widely covered in Korean financial press as validation of Mirae Asset's original 2019 bet on the company. SEMIFIVE is preparing a KOSDAQ listing.
Team
- Eung-Suk Kim — Chief Executive Officer (in role since April 2008)
- Kyung Mo Kim — Partner
- Jin Hwan Cho — Partner
Public sources describe a team of roughly 23 investment professionals, including 14 partners, split across Seoul and Bundang-gu, Seongnam offices.
Decision Process
As a KOSDAQ-listed institutional fund manager (rather than a small partnership), decisions run through an internal investment committee process typical of large Korean institutional VCs, rather than a solo-GP or lean-partnership model.
Founder Preferences
The portfolio skews toward Korean founders building in deep-tech (semiconductors), consumer platforms with strong unit economics, and increasingly toward AI-native software, reflecting the group's stated strategic priority to increase exposure to AI investing both domestically and via Silicon Valley.
Geographic Focus
Overwhelmingly South Korea (the large majority of portfolio companies), with a growing allocation to the United States, particularly Silicon Valley AI companies, as the broader Mirae Asset Group builds out a San Francisco venture presence.
Headquarters
20, Pangyoyeok-ro 241beon-gil, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea, with a secondary Seoul office at Parnas Tower, Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu.