KB News Desk
Tech-focused National Growth Fund makes first bet on K-content
South Korea is launching a 150 billion won ($101 million) content fund to finance large-scale culture projects — a capacity its existing, smaller culture funds have lacked.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Financial Services Commission on Wednesday opened applications for managers to run the K-Culture Value-up Fund, which will invest across the K-culture industry and in AI-driven content and technology.
The fund will draw 50 billion won in government money from the Culture Ministry and 30 billion won from the Korea Development Bank and the Advanced Strategic Industries Fund, with the remaining 70 billion won or more to come from private investors.
The 30 billion won marks the first time the government’s FSC-led National Growth Fund, which backs advanced strategic industries such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence, has co-invested with a ministry’s content policy fund.
The tie-up reflects a broader shift in how Seoul classifies content. A 2025 revision to the Korea Development Bank Act and its enforcement decree made content companies eligible for the Advanced Strategic Industries Fund, and the government’s official AI classification lists AI-based content development alongside AI chips, humanoid robots and quantum computing.
The money will be divided into two funds. A 100 billion won fund will invest in companies that use AI to plan and produce content, or that build K-culture businesses around content intellectual property in games, video and music. A separate 50 billion won fund will back companies engaged in content production and distribution.
The new fund adds to the support the culture ministry already channels through the Korea Fund of Funds, whose culture and film accounts have long seeded content companies. In December, the ministry committed a record 730 billion won to the fund of funds. The money is spread across many smaller child funds — typically around 50 billion won each — too small to finance the big-budget productions the ministry now wants to back. Bringing in the National Growth Fund lets the government assemble a single, larger vehicle capable of large-scale investment.
Content is increasingly rippling across industries — a webtoon or game spawning dramas, films and stage shows —and hit content can drive tourism and consumer exports. The government says the fund aims to maximize that ripple effect and help K-culture lead global markets.
The fund is also built to follow Korean content and intellectual property abroad. Managers may steer up to 20 percent of the fund into overseas deals tied to Korean companies — foreign subsidiaries or joint ventures set up by Korean firms, or foreign companies backed alongside a Korean strategic investor. Purely foreign investments are allowed as well, capped at half of any capital raised beyond a fund’s target.
“This fund is the starting point for the National Growth Fund to co-invest in a Culture Ministry policy fund to support the K-culture industry,” said Kim Kyung-hwa, director general for cultural industry policy at the ministry, calling it the first such tie-up by any government ministry. “It will serve as a springboard for K-culture, as a national growth engine, to leap into global markets.”
Son Young-chae, head of the National Growth Fund promotion team at the FSC, said the government will keep linking the Advanced Strategic Industries Fund to funds set up by individual ministries, expanding their scale to enable substantial investment and develop each ministry’s key projects.
