Choi Tae Won, the CEO of SK Group, has founded and made the first investment in the ‘Choi Tae Won Fund’, established to support the social entrepreneurs.

KAIST Venture Investment Holdings reported that the fund has selected five social enterprises for its first investment. KAIST Venture Investment Holdings is a firm established last November by Mr. Choi to discover talented entrepreneurs and provide the initial capital.

The selected social enterprises are NEET, ‘연금술사’ which supports the independence of teenagers, ‘에이컴퍼니’, which supports the creation of indie authors, ‘리아프’, which develops and operates horticultural education, and ‘터치포굿’ and ‘자락당’ which base their business models on resource recycling.

CEOs of all of the five enterprises, except the CEO of ‘연금술사’, are the first graduates of the Social Entrepreneur MBA course established in 2012 by SK Group and KAIST.

“From this investment, required capital will be delivered to social enterprises in the early stage to establish a foundation for growth. All five enterprises are expected to alter the ecosystem of Korea’s social enterprises into a structure of a virtuous cycle.” said a SK Group staff member.

link: http://news.donga.com/3/all/20150317/70181746/1#