I've invested in three startups. There are quite a few employees around who work as angel investors..

사진 확대 Won Ho-seop, Silicon Valley correspondent

"I've invested in three startups. There are quite a few employees around who work as angel investors like me."

This is the words of a Korean engineer working at a Silicon Valley big tech company. He first became an angel investor three years ago. Over the past five years, the value of stocks received from the company has risen significantly, resulting in extra money, and it has invested in three early start-ups that it happened to know. "It's not a lot of money, but I invested with a few colleagues. You may not have as many eyes as a professional investor, but sometimes it's good to eat with the founder, listen to his concerns, and watch him grow."

In Silicon Valley, corporate success does not end with the wealth of employees. Employees who made assets from stock options will again be the first investors of the next founder. This is because he watched the industry that he knew better than anyone else and closer than anyone else. A co-worker who worked with him starts a business and a former boss sets up a company. Investing in them is not buying unfamiliar financial products, but betting on the people and technology you know best. Investment doesn't end with money. Introduce customers, connect developers, and advise on products. Capital and experience move together.

This culture has grown with the success of big tech. Google went public in 2004 and turned nearly 1,000 employees into millionaires. Andrea Jurick, a former manager of Google's advertising division, has since become an angel investor who has invested in 26 startups. 33,000 people are participating in the community "Xoogler" created by former and current Google employees. They are funding numerous startups through joint investment networks and their own funds. Josh Ellman, a former Facebook program manager, also became an investor after creating assets with stock options. Employees who gained wealth from Microsoft's listing became the foundation of the Seattle startup ecosystem. Currently, there are more than 300,000 angel investors in the United States. As of last year, they invested $24 billion (about 36 trillion won).

Korea is at a similar inflection point. Thanks to the performance of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, Korea's best semiconductor engineers are gaining huge wealth. This is not the only one. At the nation's four largest securities firms, the number of accounts with a balance of 1 billion won or more was 160,000, an increase of 2.5 times in a year. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Seoul's ultra-high-value asset owners reached 6,220 last year, up 36.3 percent in a year, the highest growth rate among major cities in the world.

Unfortunately, the channel through which this money flows to startups is still narrow. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) evaluates that Korea's venture investment has grown around the parent fund, which is a government resource. It is an achievement that the government has grown the market by pouring priming water, but companies in the early stages of their start-ups are still likely to receive investment only after passing the examination by the government and venture capital. The total amount of venture investment has increased, but the proportion of corporate investment within three years of founding has rather decreased. As the market becomes more difficult, institutional investors head to proven late-stage companies, and it becomes difficult to finance early startups that do not yet have sales. It is individuals' angel investment that fills the gap.

The power of Silicon Valley does not lie only with genius founders or huge venture capital. The culture of returning the previous success to the next founder was also an important pillar. The success of a company gives rise to another founder and investor, and they grow a new company again. Korea is now generating enough such money. What is needed is to broaden the path of that capital to the next founder.