DSC Investment, South Korea’s venture capital house trading on the Kosdaq stock market, said Tuesday its first-half performance was buoyed by the successful stock market debut of its portfolio companies.

The company last Friday announced it logged 8.6 billion won ($7.3 million) in revenue during the January-June period, up 36.4 percent from a year earlier. Its net profit came in at 4.1 billion won, up 60 percent, during the cited period.

The company said the improved earnings were attributable to profits from its investment in high-tech portfolio firms. As a result of using the equity method in accounting, DSC Investment’s venture investment reaped a 2.4 billion won net return in the first half. This comes in comparison with the 1.6 billion won return throughout 2019.

The surge comes amid the portfolio firms initial public offerings, DSC Investment added. Of them, SCM Life Science began trading on the Kosdaq bourse from June 17, after a 25.2 billion won IPO. Also in the second half, another portfolio firm Kakao Games is looking to raise at least 320 billion won in a September IPO before its Kosdaq listing. Genome & Company is gearing up to get a greenlight for the approval from the Korea Exchange.

Founded in 2012, DSC Investment has been dedicated to investing in early-stage startups younger than three years. It started trading on Korea’s development bourse Kosdaq from December 2016.

DSC Investment manages 11 funds, through which it oversees $400 million worth of assets. The VC house said its asset under management will grow larger in the second half, partly thanks to an additional 100 billion won commitment by Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance and Prevention Fund.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)