The Financial Services Commission (FSC) held an event on September 21 at the Industrial Bank of Korea to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed at helping early-stage innovative startups grow, followed by the 14th Policy Finance Support Council presided over by Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-young and attended by relevant ministries and policy finance institutions. The meeting focused on measures to provide funding for early-stage startups, expand financing for small business owners, and strengthen investment in national strategic technologies.
 [코리안투데이] 정책금융이 스타트업과 소상공인을 더욱 든든히 지원하겠습니다 제14차 정책금융지원협의회 개최 © 장형임 기자 |
At the heart of these measures is a commitment to lower barriers so that funding actually reaches those who have long stood in the blind spots of policy finance, such as businesses in the earliest stages of founding and small merchants in local commercial districts. The move reflects voices from the field noting that companies with technological capability and growth potential, but low credit ratings due to short sales and transaction histories, find it hardest to raise capital.
First, the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT) and the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) announced the launch of the ‘Startup Build-up Program’ and signed an ‘MOU to Build a Growth Ladder for Early-Stage Innovative Startups’ to support it. For startups in their early founding phase, the two institutions will ease guarantee requirements such as credit rating and growth potential beyond existing standards, providing priority support of up to 100 million won, and will also apply preferential rates at the maximum level for both guarantee fees (KODIT) and loan interest rates (IBK). One year after support begins, they plan to reassess creditworthiness and growth potential to raise the guarantee limit to up to 200 million won, and to allow deferral of principal repayment for the following three years. KODIT will grant extra screening points to companies using follow-up programs and provide non-financial support such as consulting and IR for promising firms, backing the entire process of ‘entry-growth-settlement.’
 [코리안투데이] 정책금융이 스타트업과 소상공인을 더욱 든든히 지원하겠습니다 제14차 정책금융지원협의회 개최 © 장형임 기자 |
Vice Chairman Kwon Dae-young stressed, ‘While policy finance institutions have steadily supported startups’ challenges, many entrepreneurs in the field still say it is difficult to raise startup funds,’ adding, ‘When early-stage startups face the first barrier of funding shortages, what is needed is to believe in a company’s potential, lower the barrier to their first financing, and lay a stepping stone that lets them take on the challenge.’ He expressed hope that combining KODIT’s know-how in tailored support by growth stage with IBK’s experience in operating its startup incubation program ‘IBK Changgong’ would create synergy.
KODIT Executive Director Kim Seung-gwan said, ‘A foundation has now been laid to provide even thicker support extending to early-stage innovative startups with somewhat lower credit ratings,’ while IBK Executive Director Yoo Il-gwang said, ‘Through policy finance cooperation, we can now broadly embrace early-stage innovative startups that had been in the blind spots of financial support,’ adding, ‘We will build a dense growth ladder that extends from investment and nurturing all the way to global expansion.’
 [코리안투데이] 정책금융이 스타트업과 소상공인을 더욱 든든히 지원하겠습니다 제14차 정책금융지원협의회 개최 © 장형임 기자 |
The council that followed also discussed measures to expand support for small business owners. The 10 trillion won ‘Small Business Deodream Package Program,’ launched last September by IBK, KODIT and others by applying preferential interest and limit conditions to the fullest, sequentially released a total of eight products and, as of August 2026, has provided 5.7 trillion won. However, with growing concerns that high interest rates and high prices are aggravating the management burden on small businesses, the government decided to reorganize the program toward more broadly supporting small business owners facing management difficulties, and to expand the program’s scale from 10.5 trillion won to more than 12 trillion won. Detailed reorganization plans are scheduled to be finalized and announced at the end of September.
 [코리안투데이] 정책금융이 스타트업과 소상공인을 더욱 든든히 지원하겠습니다 제14차 정책금융지원협의회 개최 © 장형임 기자 |
The establishment of a specialized fund manager dedicated to investing in future strategic technologies was also reviewed. The FSC is pursuing the creation of ‘Korea Strategic Technology Partners (KSTP),’ centered on the Korea Development Bank and Korea Growth Investment Corp. With a goal of supplying up to 10 trillion won over five years at a rate of 1 to 2 trillion won per year, KSTP will invest in game-changing source technologies such as quantum supercomputing, ultra-high-reliability communication networks, and post-nano AI semiconductors, as well as core technologies of key industries with high overseas dependence, such as defense RF semiconductors, ultra-large offshore wind turbines, and rare-earth refining technology. The establishment plan was announced this past June and July, a joint establishment task force has been operating since July, the composition of a pan-financial-sector shareholder group was completed in September, and the goal is to establish the corporation within the year and launch its first projects in the first half of 2027.
In addition, joint guarantees for small and medium enterprise P-CBOs by KODIT and the Korea Technology Finance Corporation will be fully abolished. As a result, the effect of exempting joint guarantees is expected for P-CBOs worth about 1.9 trillion won annually as of 2025. The council also decided, through the 7th revision of the joint innovation-growth criteria, to newly establish core infrastructure items for AI data centers, with the revision taking effect early next month. Vice Chairman Kwon said, ‘We are continuing to strengthen productive finance efforts to expand the supply of financing to core industries that are the future growth engines of our economy,’ and called on policy finance institutions to fulfill their roles, including the 200 trillion won National Growth Fund over five years and the 150 trillion won supply to five priority strategic sectors in 2026.
지역 홍보대사 신청 기자양성과정 신청 코리안투데이 지부장 신청 코리안투데이 인천강화코리안브랜드대상 신청 최고경영인대상 신청 소비자만족도대상 신청
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