Culture Ministry to Create KRW 150 Billion K-Culture Fund

| The fund will invest in AI, intellectual property and content innovation.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Financial Services Commission will establish a KRW 150 billion “K-Culture Value-Up Fund” to invest in the K-culture industry. The fund is designed to support larger investments in individual companies and content projects than existing culture and content policy funds.

The fund will be financed with KRW 50 billion from the Culture Ministry and KRW 30 billion from the Korea Development Bank and the Advanced Strategic Industries Fund. The government aims to attract at least KRW 70 billion in private capital to bring the total fund size to KRW 150 billion.

The Culture Ministry has operated policy funds for cultural and content industries through the Culture and Film Accounts of the Korea Fund of Funds. However, most individual funds have remained at around KRW 50 billion, limiting their capacity to support large-scale content productions and companies requiring substantial capital.

The new fund will consist of a KRW 100 billion AI and intellectual property fund and a KRW 50 billion content innovation fund. The AI and intellectual property fund must invest at least 50% in domestic K-culture companies using content-related intellectual property. The content innovation fund must invest at least 50% in K-culture companies and at least 15% in businesses involved in content production and distribution.

The project is the first case in which the National Growth Fund expanded a government policy fund. Applications from fund managers will be accepted on August 12, with the final manager expected to be selected in September. The fund is intended to expand financing options and support the global growth of Korean content companies, although its outcome will depend on securing at least KRW 70 billion in private capital and achieving actual investment results.