[THE INVESTOR] The amount of crowdfunding in Korea rose by nearly 29 percent this year, according to the Korea Securities Depository on Aug. 25.

A total of 106 companies raised a combined 14.2 billion won (US$12.60 million) from 5,826 investors between February and August, up 29.1 percent from the same period last year.

The number of the firms involved also jumped 51.4 percent from last year’s 70. 

Jeju Brewing, a craft beer maker based on the resort island, on Aug. 14 raisedits crowdfundingtarget of 700 million won (US$620,000) in just 11 hours.

Korea adopted the equity-style crowdfunding program in January last year, which enables startups and smaller firms to raise capital from a large number of small investors, typically via the internet and social media.

Companies in the publishing, filmmaking, broadcasting, and communications and information service sectors secured the largest amount of 6.4 billion won through crowdfunding during the cited period.

Manufacturing firms came next with 4.4 billion won, followed by wholesalers and retailers with 1.8 billion won.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)