Korea's Special Zone Foundation launches global capital council with BlackRock and Franklin Templeton
The R&D Special Zone Promotion Foundation launched a council of four financial institutions on 11 November. It is meant to help deep-tech firms raise funds after initial startup capital.
On 11 November the R&D Special Zone Promotion Foundation held the "2026 Deep Tech Capital Partnership Day" at the Jeonbuk Tech Biz Center and launched a Global Capital Advisory Council, according to biz.heraldcorp.com biz.heraldcorp.com
biz.heraldcorp.combiz.heraldcorp.comOpen source ↗. The council includes four financial institutions: BlackRock Asset Management, Franklin Templeton Investment Advisors, Shinhan Financial Group and KB Securities. Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province also joined the cooperation. About 80 people attended, including representatives of the foundation, the province, financial institutions and deep-tech companies.
Why the council was created
Deep-tech companies hold original core technologies, but the path from R&D to a commercial product takes a long time and large funds. After securing initial startup capital, many of them struggle to attract further investment for technology demonstration, business expansion and entry to foreign markets. To address this, the foundation built a framework linking global financial institutions with domestic technology companies.
The council plans to cooperate on sharing global capital-market information, funding advice, corporate finance tailored to each growth stage, and foreign-exchange and currency-risk management.
Seminar and one-on-one consultations
A global capital-market seminar covered overseas investment trends and funding strategies by company growth stage. Connie Leung, Asia-Pacific head of BlackRock BCM Corporate Solutions, spoke about the listed equity capital market environment and the communication strategy companies need from an investor's point of view. Franklin Templeton's Jeon Yong-bae, auditor, and Jeong Go-eun, division head, presented trends in global private equity funds (PEF) and funds dedicated to bio and tech, along with investment-attraction strategies by growth stage biz.heraldcorp.com
biz.heraldcorp.combiz.heraldcorp.comOpen source ↗.
Companies from the special zones also held one-on-one consultations with domestic financial institutions. Shinhan Financial Group discussed open innovation with its affiliates, overseas expansion and links to dedicated-fund investment. KB Securities advised on investment attraction, IPOs and corporate finance matched to each company's stage. Woori Financial Group consulted on IPOs, facility funding, and foreign-exchange and currency-risk management.
The foundation said it intends to expand the exchange of global capital-market information with overseas asset managers and to pursue follow-up work with domestic institutions that could lead to actual corporate finance and investment. Foundation chair Jung Hee-kwon said that financing by growth stage and financial partnerships are essential for the sustained growth of deep-tech companies, and that the foundation would broaden cooperation with Korean and foreign institutions.
