KB Investment, RM Global to form $100 mn bio VC fund

KB Investment Co. will join forces with US-based RM Global Partners to launch a $100 million life science fund to invest in early stage startups in the US and Europe.

They are aiming to complete a first close of the co-managed fund, dubbed KB-RMG Bio Access, at $60 million by the first quarter of next year and begin investment. They plan to bulk up the fund to $100 million by raising additional capital.

The new fund will target early stage startups in life science and healthcare industries in the US and Europe, including drug developers and technology companies, introducing artificial intelligence tools for medical diagnostics.

RM Global Partners is a life science and healthcare-focused investment banking and advisory firm. In Korea, the New York-based firm has advised LG Chem Ltd., pharmaceutical firm Yuhan Corp. and cosmetics maker AmorePacifc Corp. on their investments since the 1990s.

"Through the co-management, we will build investment experience and networks to strengthen our capabilities to be able to run our own funds in the medium to long term,” KB Investment source told Market Insight, The Korea Economic Daily’s capital market news outlet.

The venture capital arm of South Korea’s KB Financial Group has been partnering with global investment firms to source overseas investments and expand its territory.

In 2019, it formed a 220 billion won ($203 million) investment vehicle, the KB Growth Platform, to foray into Southeast Asia and India. The fund is currently raising an additional 50 billion won in a bridge fund after having deployed the same amount to eight Indian startups.

Simultaneously, KB Investment plans to more than treble the size of the $30 million Centauri Fund, jointly launched by PT Telkom Indonesia, a state-owned telecommunications conglomerate, to $100 million.

“After the bio fund launch, we will be armed with three overseas investment vehicles,” said the KB source, referring to the KB Growth Platform and Centauri Fund.

The Korean VC firm's assets under management have almost doubled to 1.7 trillion won this year from 968 billion won in 2017. The amount of its fundraising has balooned to 472.2 billion won from 158 billion won during the same period.

Write to Jung-hwan Hwang at jung@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.