POSCO Holdings opens 'Silicon Valley office to foster ventures
POSCO Holdings headquarters in Seoul / Korea Times file
By Kim Jae-heun
POSCO Holdings has begun operating a startup development facility for venture companies in Silicon Valley's San Jose the company said Wednesday.
It held an opening ceremony for the CHANGeUp GROUND Silicon Valley office, Tuesday (local time), inviting 70 relevant officials from Korea Development Bank, the Korea Venture Investment Corp., Samsung, SK Group and Hanwha Group.
POSCO has been operating CHANGeUp GROUND offices in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, and Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, to discover and foster venture firms, and now the offices have been expanded to the global scene with the opening of a new one in the United States.
“POSCO Group plans to actively support domestic startups by connecting them to partner firms in overseas while revitalizing the global venture ecosystem with a virtuous cycle of business startups, investment, fostering and investment collection,” said Park Seong-jin, chief of Industry-Academy-Research Cooperation. “We will also support maximum convenience to the startup firms by providing free offices and conference rooms so that their businesses can settle down as soon as possible while helping them to go public on Nasdaq or grow into unicorn firms.”
Earlier, the company, along with POSCO International, Born2Global and 11 venture companies, signed the Global Value-Up Business Agreement for POSCO Group Development and Investment Ventures, to help Korea's top venture firms explore overseas markets and attract investment from global institutions.
Under the agreement, POSCO Holdings will establish strategies to discover and foster promising venture firms. POSCO International will focus on global marketing of venture companies based on a mutual cooperation fund of 1.6 billion won ($1.28 million).
In addition, Born2Global will use its platform to support venture firms to enter overseas markets and grow.