Top 5 Payments Angel Investors in South Korea (June 2026)

Sunghwan Choi

Investment focus

Industry: Software, FinTech, Pharmaceutical
Stage:Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
Geography: United States, Hong Kong, South Korea

Investor stats

Total investments: 17
Round size: Seed $4M–$5.7M; Series A $5.6M–$15M
Lead/follow: 6% lead, 94% follow

Portfolio highlights

Stilt — The number one place for financial resources and immigration guidance for students and immigrants in the U.S.
CHAI — CHAI is a mobile payments dApp that allows consumers to pay for items online by simply adding their bank account.
Sequin — Sequin is building a suite of credit products for women, starting with a debit card that builds credit.

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Pietro Dova was Corporate Controller and Finance Director at Google from 2001 to 2007. He was partly responsible for the Google IPO and roadshow, and directed Google’s operational and transactional accounting responsibilities worldwide. Immediately prior to joining Google, Pietro was CFO of Employeeservice.com. From 1996 to 1999, Pietrowas VP Finance of Quote.com, an early online pioneer providing financial news and stock information to active investors. Pietro began his career in technology in 1988 at Oracle Corporation and held various executive finance positions through 1992. From 1993 to 1996, Pietro headed Fulcrum Technologies’ European finance operations based in Paris, France. Pietro received his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Imperial College, London and his Masters in Management from M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management.

Investment focus

Industry: Events, Mobile, Sports
Stage:Series A, Seed
Geography: United States, South Korea

Investor stats

Total investments: 5
Round size: Seed $400k–$800k; Series A $3M–$12M
Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

Korbit — Korbit provides online bitcoin exchange, wallet, and merchant processor services. Kangmo Kim, Louis Jinhwa Kim, and Tony Lyu founded it on July 5, 2013, with its headquarters in Seoul in South Korea as a subsidiary of NXC as of September 26, 2017.
Pogoseat — Pogoseat provides innovative mobile ticketing solutions that helps live-entertainment venues sell more tickets and enhance the fan experience.
Bluesmart — Bluesmart develops Internet connected travel products that include physical products combined with software. It offers Bluesmart app, a solution that allows users to control suitcases from their phones, receive smart alerts, and track their travel data to get insights about travel habits. Bluesmart also provides digital lock solutions for luggageand its contents; battery charging and location tracking solutions; and distance alerts and trip data. Alejo Verlini, Brian Chen, Diego Saez-Gil, Martin Diz, and Tomi Pierucci founded it on Novermber 5, 2013, with its headquarters in Mountain View in California.

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Naval Ravikant is an entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder and chairman of AngelList. He previously served as the CEO of AngelList. He attended Dartmouth College.

Investment focus

Industry: Software, FinTech, Blockchain
Stage:Seed, Series A
Geography: United States, India, United Kingdom

Investor stats

Total investments: 202
Round size: Seed $1M–$14M; Series A $2.2M–$25M
Lead/follow: 7% lead, 93% follow

Portfolio highlights

Pipe — Get up to the full annual value of your booked monthly and quarterly contracts. Scale your business without dilution or debt.
XMTP — XMTP is a decentralized and quantum-resistant messaging protocol for builders.
Hashnode — Hashnode is a blogging platform where developers, engineers, and tech leaders write to sharpen ideas, share knowledge, and build their reputation. Start for free.

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Michael founded users. Michael and the team successfully raised $30M in venture capital investment from investors such as Brentwood, Sprout, Intel Capital, Citigroup Venture Capital, and Transcosmos Corporation. In February of 2000, mySimon was successfully acquired by CNET for $700M.Prior to mySimon.com, Michael held positions at Xerox Corp., Intergraph Corporation, TeleVideo, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Jazz Multimedia, Inc. Michael has a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, MS degree in Computer Science from Columbia University and MBA degree from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He has served on the advisory board of the Stanford Institute of Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) at Stanford University. Michael holds a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

Investment focus

Industry: SaaS, Bitcoin, FinTech
Stage:Seed, Series A, Series B
Geography: South Korea, United States

Investor stats

Total investments: 3
Lead/follow: 0% lead, 100% follow

Portfolio highlights

Become — Become, Inc. provides cloud-based performance marketing and SaaS solutions that benefit online retailers, web & mobile publishers and online shoppers (Product Ads, Channel Management, Feed Optimization, Analytics and more). Become helps merchants increase sales, publishers monetize traffic and consumers make more informed shoppingdecisions. With over 500 publishers, Become operates the world’s largest syndication network for Product Ads.A truly global company, Become, Inc. generates over 70% of its revenue outside the US. With operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Japan, and the Philippines, we leverage our growing global footprint to provide unmatched solutions to our partners and shoppers.Become, Inc. is a profitable, privately held company with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Key investors include TPG, Transcosmos, Inc., European Founders Fund and Ron Conway.
Korbit — Korbit provides online bitcoin exchange, wallet, and merchant processor services. Kangmo Kim, Louis Jinhwa Kim, and Tony Lyu founded it on July 5, 2013, with its headquarters in Seoul in South Korea as a subsidiary of NXC as of September 26, 2017.

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