Policy Financial Institution's Brand Ambassador is a Girl Group… Korea Venture Investment Appoints Risenne as Honorary Brand Ambassador
Date
Aug 17, 2026
Classification
- Startups
#
- Startup Trends
Author
Korea Venture Investment (KVIC) appointed girl group Risenne as honorary ambassadors on August 3. The appointment ceremony was held at the office of a portfolio company rather than at KVIC headquarters. KVIC introduced this case as a representative example of its 'Beyond & Bridge' strategy.
Korea Venture Investment appointed 'Ricenne,' a girl group under The Muse Entertainment—an agency that received investment from the Fund of Funds' sub-fund—as honorary ambassadors.
The appointment ceremony will be held at the investee company's building, not the headquarters, on August 3 in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam.
Korea Venture Investment (KVIC) announced that it held a celebratory event on the 3rd at The Muse Entertainment building in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, to mark the leap forward as a 'K-Content Growth Enterprise,' and appointed Licenne as an honorary ambassador. The event was attended by Lee Dae-hee, CEO of KVIC, and Licenne members Jena, Woni, Minami, May, and Liv. During the event, The Muse Entertainment's growth process and Licenne's domestic and international achievements were shared.
The format of the event itself differs from typical promotional events held by policy financial institutions. It was held at the office of a portfolio company rather than the institution's headquarters, and the appointed guests were artists, not businesspeople or experts. Korea Venture Investment explained that the event was organized to highlight how small and medium-sized entertainment agencies, having received investment from the Fund of Funds’ sub-funds, are generating tangible market results and expanding their potential for global growth based on their independent artist planning and production capabilities. It is unusual for a policy financial institution to place artists affiliated with a portfolio company at the forefront of its own promotional activities.
The selection of Risenne is based on their recent achievements. Risenne is demonstrating growth by topping major domestic music charts and is expanding its foundation for overseas activities through the release of Japanese music and entry into local charts. They have also achieved six wins on music shows.
"Beyond the priming water, a connecting path"… The contents of Beyond & Bridge put forward by KVIC
This event reflected the strategic framework recently put forward by Korea Venture Investment (KVI). 'Beyond & Bridge' embodies the meaning of moving beyond the simple supply of policy funds to support corporate performance creation and strengthening its role as a platform connecting investment and policy at every stage of growth. The organization stated that it is expanding its role to become an investment platform that goes beyond acting as a catalyst for the venture ecosystem (Beyond) to helping companies generate tangible results and connecting them through policy (Bridge). KVI explained that the cases of The Muse Entertainment and Licenne align with this intent, as they represent instances where the planning capabilities of small and medium-sized agencies, the efforts of artists, and venture investment combined to create a lasting success.
Lee Dae-hee, CEO of Korea Venture Investment, stated, "Ricenne's achievements demonstrate the potential for small and medium-sized content companies to generate meaningful market results when differentiated planning capabilities are combined with appropriate investment," adding, "We will support the stable growth and global market expansion of promising K-content companies."
Activity plans following the appointment were also presented. Risenne plans to contribute to promoting the achievements of K-content companies that have grown through venture investment, as well as the challenges faced by domestic venture firms. Korea Venture Investment (KVI) announced that, using this event as an opportunity, it plans to strengthen support to help promising small and medium-sized content companies attract investment appropriate for their growth stages and expand into domestic and international markets. They also intend to review specific cooperation measures utilizing the role of honorary ambassador in consultation with The Muse Entertainment.
The next challenge is reproducibility… the proportion of private investment and follow-up cases
Apart from its symbolic effect, it remains to be seen whether this case will lead to institutional changes. First, looking at the financing structure, there is a clear dependence on government funding. Of The Muse Entertainment's total investment of 6.19 billion won, 5.5 billion won came from the government-backed fund. Given that government funding bore the majority of the initial risk, the extent to which private capital flows into similar companies will be the variable determining whether this scenario can be replicated.
It is also necessary to examine the direction of the Fund of Funds' capital contributions. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that, together with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and Korea Venture Investment, it will contribute 2.1 trillion won through the first regular investment call for 2026 to create a venture fund worth 4.4 trillion won. Of this, the 'Next-Generation Unicorn Nurturing Project,' aimed at fostering AI and deep tech unicorns, will be implemented on a scale of 1.3 trillion won. This effectively places cases of content companies at the forefront in a phase where the center of gravity of capital allocation has shifted toward deep tech.
Last July, The Muse Entertainment was selected as the first company to collaborate with JB Investment and EBN Industrial Economy for venture company growth support. Moving forward, it remains to be seen whether this single success story leads to a change in the actual evaluation criteria of sub-fund managers and whether content companies of similar scale attract follow-up investments.
The fact that a policy financial institution placed an idol group at the forefront of its promotion can be seen as an attempt to explain the achievements of the Fund of Funds in a popular language. At a time when Fund of Funds contributions are concentrating on AI and deep tech, the selection of growth cases for non-deep tech SMEs is interpreted as a signal that sub-fund pathways remain open for founders in the content and consumer goods sectors. However, whether this signal leads to actual investment execution remains to be verified through subsequent cases.
#KoreaVentureInvestment #MotherFund #Ricenne #KContent #VentureInvestmentPolicy
[Advertisement]
Collaboration Proposals / Business Inquiries: hello@startlounge.kr
IR/Pitch deck manufacturing inquiries: hello@pitchmound.kr
IR/Pitch deck manufacturing inquiries: hello@pitchmound.kr
Everything about startups . Start Lounge - Launch Pad 「Lunch Pad」
ⓒ 2026. Start lounge. All rights reserved.
