Number of Venture Firms with Sales of 100 Billion Won Increased by 7 Times in 12 Years

Regardless of economic recession, innovative products made by venture firms have been selling like hotcakes.

According to “2016 Venture Firm Survey” released by the Small and Medium Business Administration and the Korea Venture Business Association on December 28, venture businesses has shown remarkable performance even in difficult situations at home and abroad.

The number of venture firms in South Korea stood at 33,137 as of the end of November this year, hitting an all-time high every month. Their combined sales amounted to 216 trillion won (US$178.14 billion) as of the end of last year, which was larger than 146 trillion won (US$120.41 billion) of Hyundai Motor Group that ranked second in sales rankings. The sales of each company stood at 6.92 billion won (US$5.71 million), up 8.6 percent from 2014. Its growth rate was higher than large conglomerates with minus 4.7 percent, and small and mid-size firms with 8 percent.

The number of venture firms which surpassed 100 billion won (US$82.47 million) of sales also increased seven times to 474 after 2004. They also stood out in employment and research and development (R&D) investment. Last year, venture companies hired a total of 728,000 employees and the average number of workers hired by a company reached 23.3, which was much higher than 4 of small and mid-size firms. In addition, the ratio of R&D investment to sales recorded at 2.4 percent, which was 3.4 times higher than small and mid-size companies with 0.7 percent and 1.6 times higher than large conglomerates with 1.5 percent.