Korea Investment Partners invests in blockchain startup TEMCO

South Korean blockchain startup TEMCO has announced that it has secured institutional investment from Korea Investment Partners (KIP), one of the leading venture capital firms in the country.

KIP is the latest to join the list of world-class institutional investors that support the TEMCO, which includes the likes of RSK - Bitcoin Smart Contract Platform, TLDR Capital - Global Cryptocurrency Investment Firm, Deblock - ICON Foundation Accelerator, and Blockchaini - Global Blockchain Accelerator.

KIP has backed a number of growing billion-dollar companies including Naver, Kakao, Korbit, DoubleU Games, and Bithumb. In addition to the investment, KIP will serve as one of the key business partners and utilize their management expertise to accelerate TEMCO's development.

"TEMCO is more than prepared to disrupt contemporary supply chain process. Not only does TEMCO exceed existing business solutions, but also is a prime example of the potential of blockchain technology. Korea Investment Partners is proud to be a leading investment partner for TEMCO,” Jong Hyun Kim, Fintech Investment Board Member of KIP, said.

Using blockchain and smart contracts, the Transportation Enterprise Merchandise Customer Organization (TEMCO) Project aims to transform supply chain management. The key objective is to provide greater transparency and reliability across the entire supply chain process to deliver trustworthy information that empowers businesses and consumers.

According to the official release, TEMCO is the first initial coin offering (ICO) to be funded by a major venture capital. The company is soon going to launch its $19 million token sale. Users can participate in the token sale whitelist in October 2018 and pre-sale near November 2018.

The government of South Korea declared ICOs as “fundraising activity without permission” last year, essentially making them illegal. Since then, domestic startups have been looking at other jurisdictions for their ICO drives. However, there have been some efforts recently to encourage ICOs – Governor of Jeju Island Won Hee-ryong in August requested the central government to designate the island a special zone for blockchain and cryptocurrency and is seeking to make the island ICO-friendly.