Biosimilar company Celltrion and Korea Development Bank said Wednesday they plan to form a 200 billion-won ($168 million) fund to fuel the bio-health industry.

Celltrion CEO Seo Jung-jin and KDB Chairman Lee Dong-gull have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in identifying promising startups and investing in them.

They will also work together in realizing Celltrion’s previously pledged vision to invest 40 trillion won by 2030. 

Seo had announced in May that he would inject 25 trillion won in the biologics drug business, 5 trillion won in chemical drug business and 10 trillion won in artificial intelligence and a medical big data platform called U-Healthcare.

KDB will utilize the venture capital platform and connect with state-operated research facilities and university laboratories to support Celltrion and venture firms’ technology development and commercialization.

“Celltrion’s global market know-how, along with KDB’s financial support program, will become an invaluable foundation for venture startups to become unicorn companies,” said Seo.

A unicorn company refers to a privately held startup valued at over $1 billion.

“For Korea to gain a leadership position in the global bio industry, Celltrion will give unsparing support to startups,” Seo said.

Lee underscored that this is the first collaboration between a global bio company and Korea’s representative financial institution.

“Through our active cooperation, we will contribute to the qualitative growth of Korea’s bio industry,” Lee said.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)