Wadiz Partners Completes First Venture Fund Formation… Accelerating 'Promising Brand Cultivation' with Lotte Home Shopping

Wadiz Partners Completes First Venture Fund Formation… Accelerating ‘Promising Brand Cultivation’ with Lotte Home Shopping

- 2024 Korea Fund of Funds Investment Project ‘LYCON’ Venture Fund Formed at KRW 5 Billion Scale, Lotte Home Shopping Joins as Strategic Partner ‘Hand in Hand’
- Focused Investment and Cultivation of Promising Small Lifestyle and Region-Based Brands… Expected Synergy with Matching Loan (LIPS)

Wadiz Partners is set to launch its lifestyle and local sector early-stage company cultivation business in earnest. Wadiz announced that its investment subsidiary Wadiz Partners completed the formation of its first venture fund on June 27 through the ‘Lotte Home Shopping–Wadiz Next Brand Cultivation Fund Formation General Meeting.’ The event was attended by Wadiz Partners CEO So Gang-seop, as well as representatives from Korea Venture Investment Corporation (Korea Fund of Funds) and Lotte Home Shopping, both of which contributed to the fund.

In February, Wadiz Partners was selected as the inaugural fund manager (GP) of the newly established ‘LYCON’ fund under the first Korea Fund of Funds investment round this year, and subsequently joined forces with Lotte Home Shopping as a limited partner (LP) and strategic partner. The completion of this fund formation is significant in that it was achieved on time amid the recent contraction in the investment market, which has made it increasingly difficult to form new funds.

This fund has been formed at a scale of KRW 5 billion and plans to make focused investments in and cultivate promising brands in the lifestyle and local sectors. In particular, it will accelerate the growth of entrepreneurial small business owners and local companies that have achieved results on Wadiz funding through unique ideas and product capabilities.

Wadiz and Lotte Home Shopping have been pursuing a joint initiative to cultivate promising small and medium-sized brands since signing a strategic business agreement in October of last year. With the completion of this fund, the two companies plan to significantly expand the scope of their collaboration.

What sets this fund apart is that, in addition to investing in early-stage promising companies, it supports corporate financing through a combined investment and lending strategy linked to LIPS (matching loan for entrepreneurial small business owners). LIPS is a Ministry of SMEs and Startups program in which a designated operating company makes a prior investment and recommendation, after which policy fund loans at low interest rates of up to five times the private investment amount (up to KRW 500 million) are provided.

Wadiz Partners CEO So Gang-seop stated, "The most distinctive aspect of this fund is that it was formed through collaboration with strategic investors who can provide practical support including market access and financial assistance,” and added, “Going forward, we will use this fund as a lever to produce numerous ‘LYCONs’ and set the standard in the field of investment in entrepreneurial small business owners.”