JYP Entertainment Establishes First Venture Fund with 100 Billion Won Aiming at Cultural Technology Investments

JYP Partners, founded by JYP Entertainment to expand its venture investment activities, has successfully established its first blind fund. The fund, totaling 100 billion won, is planned to focus on investments in the cultural technology sector.

JYP Partners is a specialized technology business finance company established with 100% ownership by JYP Entertainment. It began operations in 2023 with a capital of 500 million won, increased this amount to 1.1 billion won, and completed registration as such a company in 2024. In its early stages, former CEO Park Jin-oh, an investment expert with nearly 20 years of experience in the industry, led the company’s establishment and registration process. He stepped down from his role in March 2024 after laying the foundation through his extensive industry experience. Currently, the company is led by Shin Min-kyung, who previously worked at Daekyo Investment.

Even before establishing JYP Partners, JYP Entertainment had already been actively engaged in venture investments. In 2019, it invested 300 million won in the LNS Fund, and in 2020, it contributed 1 billion won to the LNS-JYP Smart Investment Fund. The company also made various direct investments, including 2 billion won in Meal Normal Company, a quick-service food company; 2 billion won in Orange Square, a travel fintech firm; 1.7 billion won in Dream Us Company, a music entertainment tech company; and 1.5 billion won in Forest Factory, a K-pop-focused printing and production company. It further invested 5 billion won each in P4P, an AI video and image company, and Naver Z, a metaverse platform.

In 2021, the company invested 21.4 billion won in Dear U, the operator of the fan communication platform Bubble. Later, it sold part of its shares to SM Entertainment for approximately 9.5 billion won, reducing its stake to 10%. In 2023, it invested 2 billion won each in Next Wave Corporation, a digital content and intellectual property platform jointly established with YG Entertainment, but that company was liquidated last year.

Recently, JYP Partners became one of the co-managing partners (GP) selected alongside SBI Investment to form its first blind fund. The fund is planned to be structured with 20 billion won contributed by the Mother Fund, bringing the total size to 100 billion won, with JYP Entertainment also listed as a key investor. A representative from JYP Partners stated, “After completing the founding meeting, we began thorough evaluations of potential investment targets,” adding, “We expect to start making our first investments soon.”