Busan Bank
In May 2022, when South Korea’s startup accelerator D.Camp opened its first office in the port city of Busan, Kam-Chan Ahn topped the list of VIP invitees. After all, as chief executive of regional powerhouse Busan Bank, Ahn’s leadership team has carved out quite a name for itself among innovators in Korea’s second-biggest city.
The bank has been supporting development in the city of nearly 3.5 million people since 1967, but its importance has risen in recent years as it aimed its corporate lending and banking efforts at firms with unicorn potential.
That impetus came from Ahn, who took the top job in March 2021 and quickly realized that supporting local business innovation was key to acquiring the core competitiveness suitable for the digital age.
This meant that along with fulfilling Busan Bank’s original role of a regional lender, the team also pivoted towards new corporate financing opportunities to support startups. The bank’s parent company had long looked for early-stage investments and took minority stakes in promising enterprises. In 2009, it opened the BNK Venture Capital fund and headquartered it in Seoul.
That