Issue Agenda 5: A full-cycle finance system for deep-tech innovation and growth

Summary

KISTEP explains that deep tech is capital-intensive and involves long investment and recovery horizons, so funding should be staged against technical milestones. The domestic market on its own cannot offer enough demand or testing environments for such firms. In Korea, grants are ample at the early R&D stage, but a funding gap appears at demonstration and scale-up and long-term capital is scarce, while links among grants, loans, guarantees and equity remain weak. The agenda proposes a full-cycle public-private finance chain, for example R&D grants and tax benefits early on, a shift of policy finance from loans and guarantees toward investment, and large public-private capital for high-impact projects. It also suggests joint public-private companies in which government takes subordinated stakes with limited voting rights, plus integrated coordination of the many policy funds now being launched competitively by ministries.