Korea Development Bank announced Monday plans to invest 4 trillion won ($3.4 billion) in young people looking to start their own businesses, venture businesses and small and middle-cap companies.

KDB is willing to see a 10 percent loss in profits for the plans that will contribute to society, said the bank.

“The international trend in terms of management goals is shifting from profit-seeking to customer-seeking. We aim to secure future sources of profit by investing in startups, venture and small and middle cap companies which are hard for retail banks to support because of profit,” KDB said in a statement.

KDB first plans to invest 500 billion won by June in the KDB Pioneer Program, which it has been running since September to support venture, small and middle-cap companies.

It started with a fund of 1 trillion won but about 90 percent of it has been spent so far and the fund is expected to run out by June.

The bank also plans to annually increase the amount of funds for the KDB Pioneer Accompanying Fund, in which KDB and local conglomerates have invested equally, and raised 521.1 billion won to lend to partner small and middle cap companies with a low interest rate of around 2.5 percent.

It will also gradually expand the number of participating companies.

All deposits that came in through KDB direct banking will be used for the KDB Direct Pioneer Program, which provides as much as 2 trillion won per year to traditional industries, industries for domestic demands such as those related to the four-river development project, and small businesses.

“KDB will contribute to creating jobs and enhancing society’s competence by supporting startups and venture businesses through low-interest funds,” said KDB.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldcorp.com)