Market data
Korean venture funds reaching term
Real figuresNo figure is illustrative.
The size of the funds reaching term
The register holds four size bands. Each band counts the funds reaching term between 2026 and 2030.
| Below KRW 10bn | 661 funds |
|---|---|
| KRW 10–30bn | 668 funds |
| KRW 30–100bn | 359 funds |
| KRW 100bn and aboveThese 96 funds hold 34% of the capital reaching term. | 96 funds |
Source DIVA register, Saint Clair reading of 26 October 2026
The median fund reaching term in 2026
KRW 15.6bn
The median commitment of a fund reaching term in 2026
Source DIVA register, Saint Clair reading of 26 October 2026
Seniority at term
A fund that is ten years old or more at term has run well past the six to eight years of a typical fund term. Saint Clair measures the age of each fund at term from its registration date and its last disclosed maturity date on the register.
247funds
Funds reaching term between 2026 and 2030 that are ten years old or more at term
27.9%
Of the capital in funds reaching term within two years or past term, the share in funds ten years old or more at term
Source DIVA register, September 2026 disclosure · Saint Clair reading of 26 October 2026
Past term and still on the register
A fund that reaches term and does not close stays on the register. The register lists each of these funds.
168funds
Funds past term and still on the register, at 26 October 2026
KRW 2.8tn
The capital those funds committed
3.8%
Their share of all the capital on the register
Source DIVA register, Saint Clair reading of 26 October 2026
The terms of extension
When a fund reaches term, its manager closes the fund or extends it, and some managers have filed neither decision yet. The register records each outcome.
4.0to 1
Funds extended for every fund that left the register, between 18 June and 26 October 2026 (221 against 55)
12months
The median extension, in 150 of the 221 extensions
| Funds that reached term, 5 July to 1 September 2026 | 91 funds |
|---|---|
| Of those, funds the manager extended | 30 funds |
| Of those, funds the manager closed | 6 funds |
| Of those, funds with no filing recorded | 55 funds |
Source DIVA register, seven readings compared, 18 June to 26 October 2026 · Saint Clair reading, published nowhere else
The published series
| Un-exited venture investment, 2024The highest on record, on the ministry’s basis. | KRW 32.0tn | Korean government, joint ministries, through Unicorn Factory · 21 November 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Venture-backed listings on KOSDAQ, 2025The series runs from 33 a year in 2014. | 69 | Korea Venture Capital Association · 2025 |
| KOSDAQ listings of January to September 2026 trading below their offer priceTheir median stood 42.5% below the offer at the closes of 21 October 2026. The same months of 2025 brought 49 listings. | 28 of 32 | Saint Clair calculation from Korea Exchange closing prices; listing counts from Numbers · October 2026 |
| Recovery as a share of deployment, 2013 to 2021The association has not published the series in won after 2021. | 58.7% to 23.5% | Korea Venture Capital Association |
| Annual return of the liquidated funds of the agri-food mother fund33 funds returned 1.24 times the money invested. The six that earned carried interest averaged about 15%. | 5.05% | The Bell · 16 October 2026 |
| Foreign capital in Korean venture fundsAn upper bound. India is 87%, Singapore 84%, the United Kingdom 74%, Germany 66% and the United States 7%. | About 1% | Korean government, joint ministries, citing Preqin · October 2024 |
| Secondary sub-funds in the 2026 Fund of Funds roundThe ministry’s plan for merger funds and secondary funds together is KRW 300bn. | KRW 140bn | Korea Venture Investment Corporation · 2026 round |
| Secondary call of the LP growth fund (Track 2), October 2026For three managers. A fund stake qualifies when its fund is three years old or has invested 45% of its capital. | KRW 75bn | Numbers, on the Korea Venture Investment Corporation call · 21 October 2026 |
| Foreign buyers in Korean venture secondariesThe search found transactions on the buyout side only. | None found | Saint Clair search of reported transactions · October 2026 |
The first price readings
Korea publishes no price for a stake in a venture fund. Each reading below is a public reference a buyer can use.
| Average price of a venture fund stake, as a share of net asset value, 2020 to mid-2026A global average. A stake in a buyout fund sold at 92% of net asset value. | 76% | Jefferies, cited by the Korea Capital Market Institute · 19 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| A Korean secondary fund's stake in Neosapience, bought before the listingKDBC-K2 2023 bought into the November 2025 round at KRW 13,519 a share after adjustment. The shares traded at KRW 8,660 on 16 October 2026. The figure is the round's, not a mark disclosed by the fund. | 35.9% below cost | Numbers · 16 October 2026 |
| Three venture funds' shares in Cocktail.io, sold back to its listed parent under a put clauseNamu AX paid KRW 11.31bn on 30 October 2026. An external appraiser valued the shares at KRW 1.72bn to 2.40bn. The 2020 contract set the price at cost plus 15% a year once Cocktail.io missed its listing deadline of July 2026, and the funds accepted 9 to 11%. The price came from the contract and from what the buyer could pay, so it prices no other sale. | 4.7 to 6.6 times appraised value | Numbers · 3 November 2026; Daily Hankook · 2 November 2026 |
Three series Korea does not publish
A buyer asks for each of the three series, and no Korean institution publishes any of them. Tesseractic’s price register and half-yearly survey address the first.
| The volume of secondary transactions | Not published |
|---|---|
| Recovery in won after 2021 | Not published |
| The holding period to an exit | Not published |
Source Saint Clair review of Korean official statistics · 27 September 2026
Ten years of the register
For each year, the series uses the latest issue of the DIVA VC Market Brief that reports that year. Over the decade 2,475 funds opened and 625 left, about four to one. The stock quadrupled, and the share closing each year halved.
Funds opened, operating and leaving the register, each year
funds
- Funds opened
- Funds leaving
Table view
| Year | Funds opened | Operating at year-end | Funds leaving | Leaving, share of the opening stock |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 120 | 603 | 46 | 8.7% |
| 2017 | 164 | 717 | 50 | 8.3% |
| 2018 | 146 | 805 | 58 | 8.1% |
| 2019 | 170 | 920 | 55 | 6.8% |
| 2020 | 206 | 1,077 | 49 | 5.3% |
| 2021 | 404 | 1,430 | 51 | 4.7% |
| 2022 | 380 | 1,736 | 74 | 5.2% |
| 2023 | 290 | 1,956 | 70 | 4.0% |
| 2024 | 286 | 2,159 | 83 | 4.2% |
| 2025 | 309 | 2,379 | 89 | 4.1% |
Source DIVA VC Market Brief, 2019 to 2026 · funds leaving = the opening stock plus the funds opened, minus the closing stock
The basis of these figures
The register is the DIVA fund list at the September 2026 disclosure period, pulled on 26 October 2026. It holds 2,580 venture investment partnerships, committing KRW 75.2tn across 527 managers.
“Reported carrying value” is the value a fund reports for its investments. The balance sheets mix bases. Of the 2,502 statements for FY2025, 635 carry changes in fair value. The rest appear to hold investments at cost.
The balance sheets report paid-in capital net of the capital a fund has already returned. They therefore state no return figure.
Every register figure is an aggregate. A price reading may concern one named holding, and it carries its source.
How to cite Saint Clair, Market data on Korean venture funds reaching term, Tesseractic, 26 October 2026. Each figure’s own source is named beside it. · Licence CC BY 4.0