[THE INVESTOR] Crowdfunding in South Korea is gaining strength as the authorities pledged more efforts to promote it, data showed on Jan. 24.

South Korea introduced the equity-style crowdfunding program a year ago, which allows early stage startups to raise capital from a large number of individuals investing relatively small amounts of money, typically via the internet.

“Crowdfunding is taking root as a new route of raising capital for startups and small and medium-sized enterprises,” the FSC’s chief Yim Jong-yong said at a ceremony to commemorate the first anniversary of the launch of the crowdfunding platform in the nation.

According to the FSC a total of 18 billion won (US$15.40 million) has been raised so far from 7,172 investors to fund 121 projects, which 46.4 percent of the 261 proposed ideas and on average each investor has provided 1.3 million won.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)