Singapore venture capital fund Farquhar VC (FVC) has announced its investment into South Korean EdTech artificial intelligence (AI) startup Catius Inc, whose lead investors of the pre-A round includes Smilegate Investments and STIC Ventures.

FVC said in a statement on Monday that Catius is the second Korean startup to join the FVC stable of high-growth companies that include Sicpama (food and beverage retail-tech), of which FVC invested alongside Infobank IAccel and the Daegu Center for Creative Economy & Innovation in February 2024.

Also, FVC has recently inked two partnership deals, namely with the Goyang Investment Authority to support mutual advancement of startups between South Korea (Goyang Special City) and Singapore and South East Asia; and Twin Ventures to enable and support cross-border startup collaborations between the two countries and geographical regions.

In addition, FVC is currently in discussions with various Korean government and industry stakeholders on potential fund collaborations, while its innovation-advisory subsidiary will be embarking on a joint accelerator program to enable startups in southern South Korea to explore global expansion opportunities.

“FVC is grateful to be entrusted for enabling startups to scale beyond domestic borders through investment and acceleration,” FVC Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer Jason Su said.

“This is made possible by having strong partners in academia, commercialization, industry, and government, such as Hanyang University Holdings, Irislab, Infobank, Twin Ventures, and Goyang Special City,

“More importantly, the fact that several of our portfolio companies (such as Tictag, MyFirst, and Spark Systems) are having ongoing commercial activities in South Korea, is proof of our ability to catalyse and sustain ties between the two countries and geographical regions,” he added.

Established in 2020, FVC has invested into more than 40 global startups to enable their growth through targeted market-access with its network of mid-sized and large corporates.

Its latest investments include EMERGE Group and Aevice Health.

In 2024 and 2025, FVC will be investing into high-growth Korean startups via its Green Future Fund.

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