Korea's StoneBridge Ventures invests $91 mn in semiconductor, AI

South Korean venture capital investment firm StoneBridge Ventures Inc. announced on Thursday that it has invested a total of 120 billion won ($90.9 million) in semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) startups, such as OpenEdges Technology, Gaon Chips and OnePredict.

Investments made in semiconductor startups are showing returns. For instance, Gaon Chips, a semiconductor design house that StoneBridge Ventures invested in in 2021, went public last year on the Kosdaq market successfully.

Similarly, OpenEdges Technology, also invested in by the firm in 2018, went public last year and is expected to have a market capitalization exceeding 500 billion won ($378 million), with StoneBridge Ventures' stake exceeding 11%. This is anticipated to make a significant contribution to the firm's fund performance in the future.

Additionally, TEMC, a semiconductor special gas company that the firm invested in last year, went public earlier this year. StoneBridge Ventures also has major semiconductor portfolios in MangoBoost, which develops data accelerators, and Israel's NeuReality, which makes AI semiconductors.

In the field of AI, the company has focused on the core infrastructure area, with examples such as Nota AI and CryptoLab, in which the firm invested in 2019. Nota boasts technology that optimizes AI models for devices, while CryptoLab has developed a source technology for fourth-generation homomorphic encryption, capable of processing and utilizing encrypted data without decryption.

Moreover, in the AI service field, StoneBridge Ventures invested in Japan's Allganize, which introduced a natural language processing (NLP)-based business-to-business (B2B) solution. The firm has also funded SoftlyAI, Skelter Labs and Upstage.

"We are investing proactively in companies that have advanced technologies, the potential for overseas expansion, or specialized industry areas that can quickly dominate the market," said Yoo Seung-Woon, CEO of StoneBridge Ventures.

Write to Jong-Woo Kim at jongwoo@hankyung.com