SK chairman`s social enterprise fund finds its first investors

SK chairman`s social enterprise fund finds its first investors. March. 18, 2015 07:20. taeho@donga.com.

The so-called "Chey Tae-won Fund," which was created by SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to foster social enterprises, has found its first group of investors.

The KAIST Youngman Start-up Investment Holdings said Tuesday it selected five social entrepreneurs as the fund`s first investors. The holding company was established in November last year with Chairman Chey`s private fortune worth 10 billion won (8.88 million U.S. dollars), in order to discover entrepreneurs possessing innovative social enterprise business models and capabilities to realize these models, and support them with seed capital.

The selected social enterprises include "Alchemist" that supports teenagers who are NEET (people Not in Education, Employment or Training), "A Company" that supports emerging writers` creative writings, "Liaf" that develops and operates training and experience programs for gardening, and "Touch for Good" and "Jarakdang" both of which operate with a resource recycling business model.

Four entrepreneurs excluding "Alchemist" CEO are graduates of the Social Entrepreneur Business School (MBA) launched by SK Group jointly with KAIST in 2012 to foster social entrepreneurs.

"Thanks to the funding, social enterprises will be able to raise seed money and establish foundation for further growth," an SK Group source said. "We hope these five enterprises serve to develop a virtuous cycle in Korea`s social enterprise ecosystem."