“Just as Naver Line has expanded its presence on the global stage, we will help Korean and French IT startups grow into global companies.”
Fleur Pelllain, CEO of Corelia Capital, declared a preemptive and aggressive investment in domestic and foreign venture companies this year. CEO Pellrain is leading an overseas investment ‘alliance’ with Naver’s Global Investment Officer (GIO) Haejin Hae Jin. said.
In a recent exclusive interview with Maeil Business News, CEO Pellrain said, “We have completed the formation of a multinational investment federation (K-Fund 2) in which major institutional investors, including Naver, participate.” started,” he said. ‘K-Fund 1’, which was previously created with Naver for 200 million euros, has doubled in the past five years, and it is known that the investment stock value of the fund is now 400 million euros.
Corelia Capital successfully completed a fund raising with the goal of raising an investment of 300 million euros (about 408.5 billion won), and recently started full-scale investment. CEO Pellrain explained, “Naver, the anchor investor (central investor), French public investment bank (Bpifrance), European insurance companies, and Family Office (super-high net worth) participated as fund investors (LPs).” He said, “Korea and France both have excellent education systems, talent pools, and great cultures, but they shared a common sense of why there are no companies that can check big tech. This is our mission,” said the purpose of the fund creation. The fund plans to bet on the potential to grow into a ‘big tech’ from a mid- to long-term point of view rather than making a profit through simple investment. In his strategy, there is a positive evaluation of the 3rd generation of entrepreneurs in Korea who show the aspect of ‘Born Global’ beyond the limits of the domestic market.
“As seen in the cases of Coupang, Toss, and Market Kurly, Korean entrepreneurs are very agile and have an excellent ability to detect market changes and convert them into business models,” said Pellerin, CEO. We plan to help advance overseas,” he said.
CEO Pellerin is an e-commerce (e-commerce) platform, artificial intelligence (AI), and fintech that can create synergy effects by collaborating with Naver, as well as emerging blockchain, metaverse, and non-fungible tokens (NFT) related startups. It also unveiled a new investment strategy to focus on
In this regard, Naver is establishing a globalization strategy in each field, such as shopping, content, metaverse, and AI, with Europe as its base. In this process, the need for large-scale investment and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is being raised. Corelia Capital is playing the role of Naver’s overseas investment coalition based on its strong local network.
In February of last year, Naver invested in Wallapop, the largest used trading platform in the country, and previously invested in France’s No. it’s the back
In particular, regarding the expanding metaverse market, CEO Pellerin noted, “With the metaverse, ‘Korea Time’ will start in earnest.” He said, “Korea has very strong intellectual property rights (IP) and contents described as Hallyu, and has its own IT platform companies such as Naver and Kakao. It has a lot of strengths,” he explained.
Regarding cooperation with large Korean companies, he said, “I am willing to cooperate not only with Naver but also with companies such as Samsung,” he said.
We asked CEO Pelllain why he changed from a successful bureaucrat and politician to a venture investor. He said, “I was able to challenge myself in a new field because I met a partner called Naver,” and said, “What I’m doing now helped me find my root.”
▶▶ Fleur Pellerin is…
△ Born in Seoul in 1973 △ Adopted in France in 1974 △ Minister of Small and Medium Business and Digital Economy in 2012 △ Minister of Trade and Tourism in 2014 △ Establishment and CEO of Corelia Capital in 2016 △ Awarded Légion d’Honneur in January 2022
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