Top 10 Payments Angel Investors in South Korea in January 2026

Last updated: Jan 2026 A list of 10 angel investors that invest in Payments startups based in South korea. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Payments companies from South korea. We update this investor list every month.

Top 10 Payments Angel Investors in South Korea in January 2026

Investor	Payments South Korea investments
Pietro Dova	2
Sunghwan Choi	1
Do Kwon	1
David Lee	1
Jay Eum	1
David Lee	1
Naval Ravikant	1
Michael Yang	1
Victor Wang	1
Tim Draper	1

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Investor list

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

Events, Ticketing, Consumer Electronics
Series A, Seed
United States, South Korea

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.

Sunghwan Choi

Investment focus

Software, FinTech, Financial Services
Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
United States, Hong Kong, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Jerry — Jerry simplifies the expensive, frustrating, and time-consuming aspects of car ownership.
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.

Do Kwon is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Terraform Labs. Do Kwon is the Founder & CEO at Terraform Labs . Do Kwon attended Stanford University.

Investment focus

Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, FinTech
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
United States, Singapore, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

KlayCity — KlayCity is a P2E virtual world where district NFT owners can govern, explore and earn while enjoying the gaming experience.
Fractal — Fractal is an in-game asset and virtual world marketplace where users may find, purchase, and sell gaming NFTs. Fractal is headquartered in Solana, United States and was founded in 2021.
Treehouse — Treehouse is the decentralized fixed income layer, building yield solutions and unifying on-chain interest rates through its products, tAssets and DOR.

David was hired at Google in 2000 as one of the first 200 employees, and was the first executive to lead their international BD, sales, and operations. He launched Google’s first international ads and founded their offices in Asia, Europe and Latam. He hired the first intl. mgmt. teams, and established Google’s overseas business. After Google,David co-founded XG Ventures, a Google alumni fund and was Co-founding Partner of SK Telecom Ventures, a $100M corp. VC fund based in Silicon Valley. His personal and VC investments include over 50 companies with 20+ acquisitions such as Tapulous (acq. by Disney), Posterous (acq. by Twitter), Scoopler (acq. by Google), ABitLucky (acq. by Zynga), Chai Labs (acq. by Facebook), Cue (acq. by Apple), Kabam (acq. by Netmarble), Chartboost, Wish, and many others. David is an LP in Y Combinator and SV Angel. In 2015, he partnered with Michael Bay (Transformers, The Rock) at 451 Media, to lead their tech and media investments and partnerships. David later formed Open Source Studios, a Stanford Business School based advisory group with prof. and two time Oscar winner Bill Guttentag, to help founders of tech & media startups such as MasterClass and Illumix. David is also a Partner at B&C Group, a leading talent mgmt. & prod. co., connecting Korea, Hollywood and Silicon Valley. He currently invests in emerging tech & media companies through his venture capital fund SLVC.David is on the advisory boards of ASES (Stanford Entrepreneurship Society), and HPAIR (Harvard Project for Asian & Intl. Relations).BloombergBusinessweek “Google’s Real Power” flic.kr/p/7FVJgr The Hollywood Reporter: https://bit.ly/2UEQAujDecoding Silicon Valley: goo.gl/ZFAefzTechcrunch: goo.gl/9q9chzTop Angel Investors: goo.gl/4eqfbm“New Silicon Valley Stars of Korean Descent” goo.gl/ZwFCu6"[슈퍼리치]실리콘밸리 뉴 코리안 슈퍼리치" goo.gl/WBQOf0“스타트업 눈앞 이익만..." goo.gl/KB78mCSina News: bit.ly/2QaCqAc

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Angel
United States, Japan, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Bolt Labs — Bolt Labs provides instant private payments for everyday purchases. The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.
Story Protocol — Story is AI-native infrastructure for the intellectual property economy.
The Plug Drink — The Plug Drink is made with 100% natural ingredients. Bounce-back faster than ever.

Jay Eum is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of GFT Ventures.

Investment focus

Software, Mobile, Analytics
Seed, Series A, Series B
United States, South Korea, Israel

Portfolio highlights

boam.ai — The easy way to find your next meal. Combines your favorite review sites, restaurant platforms, and tools in one place.
Merit — A software platform for verified digital credentials for government, organizations, people, and communities.
Opaper — Bikin toko online dalam 2 menit! Terima pembayaran, pesan kurir semua disatu aplikasi memudahkan penjualan manualmu yang dari WhatsApp dan sosial media.

Investment focus

Software, Health Care, FinTech
Seed, Series A, Angel
United States, Japan, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Bolt Labs — Bolt Labs provides instant private payments for everyday purchases. The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.
Story Protocol — Story is AI-native infrastructure for the intellectual property economy.
The Plug Drink — The Plug Drink is made with 100% natural ingredients. Bounce-back faster than ever.

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

Software, FinTech, Blockchain
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
United States, India, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

Wabi — The first personal software platform is arriving soon. Join the waitlist.
Polymarket — Bet on your beliefs
SimpleAutomation — General purpose robot to automate repetitive manual work

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.