Korea Securities Depository (KSD) plans to open a new investment support platform for startups in the latter half of this year, seeking to help unlisted firms streamline their securities-related works.
The KSD expects the platform, called Venturenet, to start offering services as early as October, to facilitate small companies in carrying out work related to their shareholders.
Startups or small firms using the platform can easily manage their shareholders in real time by issuing a share certificate or replacing it with a new one in case there are any changes in investors' stakes in the companies.
“There have been mounting calls for the need to establish such a platform, as small, unlisted companies have realistically faced difficulties in using the existing electronic securities system,” a KSDI official said. “Most of those companies handle stock-related work on their own, but this comes with a legal risk in terms of managing their account books.”
The state-run organization also expected the new platform to help enhance credibility between startups and venture capital firms, as the KSD-operated platform removes any possible security risks for small companies.
KSD is in the final stage of developing the software system for the online platform and will soon start a trial run before launching the service sometime in October.
Lee Myung-ho, president of the state-run organization, said in a New Year's address that the successful launch of Venturenet is one of his top priorities in 2021.
“We are going to reduce any possible securities-related risks and increase efficiency in the local venture capital market by successfully opening the platform,” he said.
The KSD was scheduled to begin offering Venturenet's pilot service last year, but delayed the plan to the latter half of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zait Solution, a Seoul-based system integration service provider, is developing Venturenet for KSD after winning the project early this year. The company has teamed up with a group of the nation's big financial firms in the areas of securities, banking and credit cards. (Advertorial)