Top 50 SaaS Angel Investors in South Korea in April 2025
A list of 50 angel investors that invest in Saas startups based in South korea. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Saas companies from South korea. We update this investor list every month.Top 50 SaaS Angel Investors in South Korea in April 2025
Investor | SaaS South Korea investments |
---|---|
Aviram Jenik | 9 |
Daniel Shin | 5 |
Jay Eum | 3 |
Taekkyung Lee | 3 |
S Cubic Angels | 3 |
Pietro Dova | 2 |
Sisun Lee | 2 |
Richard Seongho Choi | 2 |
Jae-sik Shin | 1 |
Sanghee Lee | 1 |
Hyunjae Lee | 1 |
Jung-hee Ryu | 1 |
Tarun Chitra | 1 |
Kim Chang-won | 1 |
Son Seok-gu | 1 |
Kim Won-tae | 1 |
Justin Lubliner | 1 |
Hwang Seong-hyeon | 1 |
Douglas Guen | 1 |
Stani Kulechov | 1 |
Ji-woo Song | 1 |
Sean (Solme) Kim | 1 |
Yoon Soo-young | 1 |
Seojoon Kim | 1 |
Primer Saje | 1 |
Do Kwon | 1 |
Alex Shin | 1 |
Louis Beryl | 1 |
Perry Tam | 1 |
Sean Hyunil sohn | 1 |
Ed Sheeran | 1 |
Naval Ravikant | 1 |
Luke Wood | 1 |
Robert Leshner | 1 |
Sangmin Shim | 1 |
Sung Cho | 1 |
Jimmy Iovine | 1 |
Gabriel Fong | 1 |
Songyee Yoon | 1 |
Sunghwan Choi | 1 |
Perry Ha | 1 |
Cristian Manea | 1 |
David Lee | 1 |
Kevin Baek | 1 |
Miguel McKelvey | 1 |
Fernando Martinelli | 1 |
Sam Kazemian | 1 |
Michael Yang | 1 |
Samuel Ahn | 1 |
Blaine Vess | 1 |
Venture Capitalist, investor and former Enterpreneur.
Founder x5, profitable bootstraps, 3 exits; investor x30+ in Israel, Silicon Valley and Korea; passion for: cyber security, building scalable B2B companies
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Investment focus
- Software, Cyber Security, Machine Learning
- Angel, Seed, Pre-Seed
- South Korea, United States, Israel
Portfolio highlights
- FROGED — Discover afforable Customer Experience tools to scale your business. Reduce churn, improve onboarding & offer amazing customer support - all in one platform.
- Kooply — Kooply is a team of proven entrepreneurs building a nextgen gaming platform.
- illustria — Illuminating blind spots and minimizing the exposed surface area to mitigate potential malicious activities
Daniel Shin is a renowned entrepreneur and investor, with extensive expertise and deep relationships in e-commerce. Daniel Shin is the Founder and CEO of PortOne Global, a leading payment company in Asia and beyond. The company's mission is to empower digital commerce partners across the Asian region. Through PortOne Global, Daniel Shinassists in the growth and development of partner companies and facilitates expansion.Previously, Daniel founded and was CEO of TicketMonster, Korea's leading e-commerce platform with $3.5Bin GMV. He is also a Co-Founder and board member of Fast Track Asia, a company-builder that established and sold multiple businesses including Fast Five (office sharing platform) and FoodFly (food delivery, acquired by Yogiyo).Daniel holds a B.Sc. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Investment focus
- Software, Financial Services, Internet
- Seed, Angel, Series A
- South Korea, United States, Malaysia
Portfolio highlights
- Bering Lab — Bering Lab provides AI-powered machine translation services for the legal, IP, financial, technology, enterprise markets
- Port One — Experience every payment in the world with one line of code
- Korea Credit Data — Korea Credit Data (KCD) provides essential services for merchants in Korea including business management, customer analysis, POS and payment services as well as marketplace platform. KCD and its six subsidiaries currently serve more than two million businesses in Korea.KCD aims to resolve issues a business owner faces from the beginning to end ofhis business life. To this end, KCD expands its business areas to include payment(Korea Payment Networks), POS(IMU), and credit bureau(Korea Credit Service) which obtained a CB license for the first time in 17 years.KCD made strong strategic partnerships with industry leading companies and built a high entry barrier; the company raised $220M+ from Temasek(Pavilion Capital), Morgan Stanley(Tactical Value), Kakao(No.1 mobile platform in Korea), KB Kookmin Bank(No.1 retail bank in Korea), Hanwha Life Insurance, Shinhan Card(No.1 credit card company in Korea), Dunamu(No.1 cryptocurrency exchange in Korea 'Upbit'), GS Holdings(No.1 CVS in Korea 'GS25'), Fiserv(the largest non-bank merchant acquirer) and more.
Jay Eum is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of GFT Ventures.
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Investment focus
- Software, Mobile, Blockchain
- Seed, Series A, Series B
- United States, South Korea
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.
Taekkyung Lee is the Founder , CEO and Representative Partner of Mashup Ventures. He previously worked at Primer Season2 as a Founding Partner. Taekkyung Lee attended Yonsei University.
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Investment focus
- Software, Information Technology, Marketing
- Seed, Angel, Funding Round
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Soundl.ly — Soundl.ly provides IoT manufactures & app developers with the most reliable data-over-audio technology for pairing devices instantly with zero user hassle.* Our technology is 100% software, so 10 times cheaper than Bluetooth* UX becomes far simpler since the steps to turn Bluetooth ON are eliminated* Our patented technology is based onRADAR and outperforming competitors by 10xOur clients (as of Aug. '16):* Akbank TV commercials: we activated TV viewer's mobiles to send an app install link* Shopping&T: TV shopping network with 15M subscriber reach* Lotte Cinema: 30% marketshare of Korean domestic theaters
- 500videos Inc. — 500videos’s verified video comes with 3-point (place, people, product) verification. We visit to check actual location of business, check the business registration or real owner and shoot the real product or service.
- DRAMA & COMPANY — Draman Company is a Mobile-based startup offering a cloud-based business card management application. The company was established in June 2013.
S Cubic Angels
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Investment focus
- Education, Apps, EdTech
- Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- South Korea
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.
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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.
Sisun Lee is CEO at 82 Labs.
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Investment focus
- SNS, Software, Content Creators
- Seed, Angel
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Awake Corporation — Awake Corporation is a creator tech startup.
Richard Seongho Choi
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Investment focus
- SaaS, Software, Human Resources
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Weperson — Weperson develops and operates a human resources software as a service platform.
- Time Percent — Time Percent is a trading platform that integrates virtual assets, domestic stocks, and foreign stocks.
Shin Jae-sik serves as CEO at Nest company.
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Investment focus
- Education, Mobile Apps, Artificial Intelligence
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Idesign Lab — Idesign Lab is an artificial intelligence-based mobile app that provides web-site education services.
Sanghee Lee
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Investment focus
- Software, Cloud Computing, Machine Learning
- Pre-Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- CLIKA — Tiny AI, Everywhere
Hyunjae Lee serves as Director of Public Policy at Woowa Brothers.
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Investment focus
- Education, Mobile Apps, Artificial Intelligence
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Idesign Lab — Idesign Lab is an artificial intelligence-based mobile app that provides web-site education services.
Jung-hee Ryu is the Partner and CEO of FuturePlay. He previously worked at FoundationX as a Partner. Jung-hee Ryu attended the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
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Investment focus
- Software, Fashion, Artificial Intelligence
- Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- South Korea, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Primer — Primer (프라이머) is a startup accelerator that the partners are all entrepreneurs based in Korea. The company started Jan 2010.The company forms groups called “PrimerClub Members” by selecting potential entrepreneurs, invest seed fund and provides them with mentoring and other support services to help ensure successful outcomes in their newventures.
- Alcacruz — A video streaming company with offices in Silicon Valley & Seoul. AlcaCruz created CruzTV, a global esports streaming platform that live streams multiple views (esports, sports games, concerts, channel programming, etc.) into one interactive screen. Our MultiView technology is based on AlcaCruz's SuperStream which live streams 360VR/AR/MR with superb video quality and at extremely low bandwidth (70% cost savings over conventional VR streaming).
- Soundl.ly — Soundl.ly provides IoT manufactures & app developers with the most reliable data-over-audio technology for pairing devices instantly with zero user hassle.* Our technology is 100% software, so 10 times cheaper than Bluetooth* UX becomes far simpler since the steps to turn Bluetooth ON are eliminated* Our patented technology is based onRADAR and outperforming competitors by 10xOur clients (as of Aug. '16):* Akbank TV commercials: we activated TV viewer's mobiles to send an app install link* Shopping&T: TV shopping network with 15M subscriber reach* Lotte Cinema: 30% marketshare of Korean domestic theaters
Tarun Chitra is Co-Founder and CEO of Gauntlet, a simulation platform for crypto networks to help developers understand how decisions about security, governance, and consensus mechanisms are likely to affect network activity and asset value. His research in DeFi includes the first peer-reviewed papers proving the economic security properties ofUniswap and Compound. He previously worked in high frequency trading for Vatic Labs and was a scientific programmer at D. E. Shaw Research.
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Investment focus
- Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Information Technology
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- United States, United Kingdom, France
Portfolio highlights
- Inco — Bringing confidentiality to Web3 through the fhEVM
- Zama — Secure data privacy of your application with the Zama Concrete framework and its fully homomorphic encryption library
- Fantom Foundation — Fantom is a next-gen Layer-1 platform for DeFi, dApps and businesses.
Kim Chang-won
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Investment focus
- Retail, Fashion, E-Commerce
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Charan — Charan is an operator of an e-commerce platform intended to sell second-hand fashion apparel.
Son Seok-gu is an Actor.
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Investment focus
- Apparel, Fashion
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Lerici — The LERICI is an atelier that creates the most exquisite and valuable garments in the world. Based on 20 years of accumulated craftsmanship and a unique sense of aesthetics, we are launching a high-end brand that offers a completely new experience.
Kim Won-tae
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Investment focus
- Mobile, PC Games, Made to Order
- Seed
- South Korea
Justin Lubliner is a CEO of the Darkroom.
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Investment focus
- Content, Software, Digital Media
- Seed, Series A
- Israel, South Korea
Portfolio highlights
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- Yoom — Link alternatif games mobile Musangwin kini hadir untuk anda menikmati kemudahan akses dan mendapatkan hiburan terpopuler di dunia game seluler.
Hwang Seong-hyeon
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Investment focus
- Software, Education
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Slid — Slid is a tool that helps online learners capture, record, and take notes while watching online lectures.
Douglas Guen is the CEO and Founder at PrimerSerial. Entrepreneur and the friend of Startups. He is a Founder and CEO of Primer (2010-now), Founder and CEO of INICIS, INITECH others (1997-2008). Douglas Guen attended Kyungpook National University.
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Investment focus
- Lifestyle, Retail, E-Commerce
- Angel, Seed, Pre-Seed
- South Korea, United States
Portfolio highlights
- WASHSWAT — Washswat is a laundry service that washes and dries the laundry that is operated by specialized facilities and personnel. They innovate the market with IT technology. Laundromat started in Gangnam with the highest number of high-end cleaners in 2015 and walked step by step silently. In order to grow in the right direction even though it is alittle slower than others, they did not rush to expand the region. Now it is Korea's No. 1 mobile laundry special service at the King of Seoul, Seongnam, Hanam, Goyang, Gwangmyeong, Yongin, Suwon, Anyang, and Gwacheon.
- Soomgo — Soomgo is a local services marketplace where customers and local professionals for over 1,000+ services come together. Their services range from private music lessons and home cleaning to wedding planning and web development among many more. The company is backed by leading institutions in both South Korea and the United States including YCombinator (W17), FJ Labs, IMM, Atinum, TBT, Strong Ventures, KDB, and more.
- Melixir — Melixir is a cult beauty brand rooted in Korean skincare rituals backed by science. Inspired by Eastern philosophy, Melixir believes that Nature is the purest form of beauty and creates plant-based skincare products that are 100% vegan and sustainable. Using cutting-edge technology and proprietary ingredients like Green Elixir™, Melixir designs themost innovative products for sensitive skin that deliver clinically-proven results.
Stani Kulechov is the founder and CEO of Aave and ETHLend. He is a seasoned entrepreneur with extensive experience developing technology in the crypto, blockchain, and fintech space. Stani is also a mentor to many founders and advisors of ICOs and blockchain projects and has spoken at numerous FinTech, Blockchain and cryptocurrency events,particularly on topics related to Ethereum Smart Contracts.
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Investment focus
- Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Financial Services
- Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- United States, Australia, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- ether.fi — Delegated Staking Protocol
- RISE Labs — The Gigagas Layer 2
- Fantom Foundation — Fantom is a next-gen Layer-1 platform for DeFi, dApps and businesses.
Song Ji-woo serves as CEO at Jiwoo Company.
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Investment focus
- Education, Mobile Apps, Artificial Intelligence
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Idesign Lab — Idesign Lab is an artificial intelligence-based mobile app that provides web-site education services.
Solme Kim is President and Chief Product Officer at Kajabi. He attended The University of Texas at Austin.
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Investment focus
- SNS, Bitcoin, Ethereum
- Seed, Funding Round
- South Korea, United States
Portfolio highlights
- StormX — Earn crypto shopping at your favorite stores. Get up to 87.5% Crypto Cashback with each purchase. Download the StormX App & Extension today.
- Awake Corporation — Awake Corporation is a creator tech startup.
Yoon Soo-young - CEO @ Trevari
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Investment focus
- SNS, Software, Content Creators
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Awake Corporation — Awake Corporation is a creator tech startup.
Seojoon Kim (서준 김) is a co-founder and vice president of KnowRe, an education technology company that develops digital learning platforms.Kim’s previous career portfolio includes his time as an intern at Sun Microsystem; intern at Olaworks; manager at ½ project; and project manager at Mozzet. He was also the co-founder of edueyes. Aftergraduating from Seoul Science High School, Kim went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in computer systems engineering from Pohang University of Science and Technology.
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Investment focus
- FinTech, Blockchain, Financial Services
- Series A, Seed, Series B
- South Korea, United States, India
Primer Saje
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Investment focus
- Artificial Intelligence, Sales, Software
- Seed
- South Korea, United States
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.
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Investment focus
- Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, FinTech
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- Singapore, United States, 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 Finance — Building the most powerful DeFi data engine to deliver analytic tools and risk management solutions to investors and institutions.
Alex Shin
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Investment focus
- Cryptocurrency, SNS, Internet
- Seed, Pre-Seed
- South Korea, United States
Portfolio highlights
- EthSign — EthSign is an e-signing platform that utilizes blockchain technology to offer a decentralized, customizable and transparent version of traditional signature service. EthSign aims to tackle data security issues caused by an over-reliance on centralized providers and build back trust in electronic signature services. With its Web3 technology(decentralized Identity, smart contract platforms and decentralized storage networks), the platform enables users to comment on, edit and access each version of an electronic agreement seamlessly and securely.
- Big Whale Labs — We build the future while everybody else lives in the past
- Awake Corporation — Awake Corporation is a creator tech startup.
3X Founder of Earnest, SolidEnergy, and now working on the next one. Formerly a16z and YC. Active angel investor and board member.
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Investment focus
- Software, FinTech, Financial Services
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- United States, Canada, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- TokerBud — TokerBud is your premier destination for top-quality cannabis products. Specializing in a wide range of options from classic strains to exotic blends, we ensure a seamless and secure online shopping experience. Our commitment to quality and customer satisfaction makes us the go-to source for all your cannabis needs.
- UberPlug — UberPlug is your premier destination for top-quality cannabis products. Specializing in a wide range of options from classic strains to exotic blends, we ensure a seamless and secure online shopping experience. Our commitment to quality and customer satisfaction makes us the go-to source for all your cannabis needs.
- OnRamp — Move onboarding projects along faster by putting customers at the center of a simple, guided experience. OnRamp is the customer onboarding platform built for customer success and implementation teams.
Perry Tam is the Co-Founder and Managimg Partner of Locus Ventures. Took up B.S., Computer Science at Cornell University.
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Investment focus
- Mobile, Consumer
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Miso — Miso provides Instantly book quality home services in South Korea with Miso's apps for iOS and Android.
Sean hyunil sohn
is CEO of KRAFTON since 2020.
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Investment focus
- Gaming, E-Commerce, Art
- Seed, Series A, Series B
- South Korea, United States, Vietnam
Portfolio highlights
- Charan — Charan is an operator of an e-commerce platform intended to sell second-hand fashion apparel.
- GGWP — We provide game developers the tools to create more positive experience for their players
- Story Protocol — Powering web3 narrative universes via story legos
Edward Christopher Sheeran, MBE is an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and actor. He attended the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford as an undergraduate from the age of 18 in 2009. In early 2011, Sheeran independently released the extended play, No. 5 Collaborations Project.
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Investment focus
- Content, Software, Media and Entertainment
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
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- Ipswich Town Football Club — Ipswich Town Football Club is a football club that competes in leagues and tournaments.
Wood began his career with Geffen Records in 1991 as a Director of Publicity, representing such bands as Nirvana and Sonic Youth. He subsequently served as Geffen’s Director of Marketing, and later as Vice President of A&R at DreamWorks Records. In 2003, Wood joined Interscope Records (as part of its merger with DreamWorks) as Executive VicePresident of A&R, having signed such artists as Jimmy Eat World, Elliott Smith and AFI. He also developed label deals with Downtown Records and signed artists such as TV on the Radio, All Time Low and Yelawolf.A lifelong producer, songwriter and musician, Wood signed a publishing deal with Universal Music Group in 1996 and that same year his band, Sammy, released its third album, Tales of Great Neck Glory, on Geffen/DGC Records. Wood earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University with a major in American Studies.
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Investment focus
- Content, Software, Media and Entertainment
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Stari — Slotindo62 sudah menjadi pilihan utama para slotter indonesia sebagai situs slot gacor berpengalaman selama 9 tahun dalam menyediakan game slot terbaik dan terupdate.
Robert Leshner is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Superstate. He previously worked at Compound Labs as a Founder. Robert Leshner attended CFA Institute.
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Investment focus
- Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, FinTech
- Seed, Series A, Funding Round
- United States, Singapore, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- Degen War$ — Degen War$ is a player-versus-player NFT card game that takes place entirely on the blockchain.
- Bonsai — An experimental, mixed ERC-20 / ERC-721 implementation with native liquidity, fractionalization and unique art. 100000 $BONSAI Token is linked to 1 BONSAI NFT!
- Fantom Foundation — Fantom is a next-gen Layer-1 platform for DeFi, dApps and businesses.
Sangmin Shim was the CEO and Founder of HogangNono. Sangmin Shim is the current CEO of Cafe Nono.
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Investment focus
- Analytics, Real Time, Scheduling
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- FlareLane — Engage with both first-time and returning app/web visitors through interactive push notifications and boost user retenion and revenue. Push, Interact, Grow.
Founder and CEO of Chartmetric.io, a data analytics company dedicated to serve the music industry, by solving the complex problem by tracking a large amount of data and meeting the industry needs around playlist marketing.Most recently he worked as Principal Product Manager at Oracle Corporation. Prior to that, he was first employee/engineerat Gamevil (KQ:063080, Market Cap: $400MM), where he initiated mobile game development and eventually positioned the company as a leading mobile game developer. Graduated with a bachelor’s degree of electrical engineering and computer science from Seoul National University, and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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Investment focus
- Software, Analytics, Social Media
- Pre-Seed, Seed
- United States, South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- OPENSURVEY Incorporated — From data collection to experience analysis, research with Dataspace
- MoxieJam — MoxieJam will be a consumer app targeted to fans of entertainment. During this time of exploding choice in media content, there is a good news / bad news situation for consumers. They have access to an incredible supply of music, TV shows, movies, podcasts and books, but that also brings a significant source of frustration. There is just nogood way to help fans organize their own playlists and watchlists, to share their interests with other fans and to discover new things that they might enjoy. MoxieJam will help fans do just that.
- Kurvv — Know when and why the mission critical equipment or asset will fail or have issues in the future so that it can be prevented from ever happening.
Jimmy Iovine is a legendary figure in the music industry and a forward-thinking visionary, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy, the Iovine and Young Center, Interscope Records, and Beats by Dre. Jimmy’s influential career began at Record Planet in New York City. Early on, Jimmywas a recording engineer for the likes of John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen before becoming a recording producer for Patti Smith, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stevie Nicks, Dire Straits, The Pretenders, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, and U2. Jimmy co-founded Interscope Records in 1990, launching artists such as Dr. Dre, Nine Inch Nails, Mary J. Blige, No Doubt, The Black Eyed Peas, Eminem, 50 Cent, and Lady Gaga. Jimmy and hip-hop producer and trailblazer Andre “Dr. Dre” Young co-founded Beats By Dr. Dre, a leading, high-performance headphone and speaker company in 2006. Thanks to the sleekly designed headphones, and expansion into smartphones and car audio systems, Beats By Dr. Dre secured the No. 1 spot in the billion dollar-plus premium headphones industry. In 2014, Jimmy and Dr. Dre expanded the Beats brand into the digital music space with Beats Music—the first streaming music service delivering contextually and culturally relevant playlists personalized for each user. Beats by Dr. Dre and Beats Music were acquired by Apple in 2014. In 2013, Jimmy and Dr. Dre teamed up again to establish and fund the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation at the University of Southern California. The pair endowed the Academy with a $70 million donation to help forge the futures of technologists, entrepreneurs, designers, and innovators working toward purpose-driven societal change. The signature integrated learning framework offers a different type of education, with undergraduate and graduate degrees focusing on technology, communication, entrepreneurship, and human-centered design. Jimmy and Dr. Dre wanted to extend the Academy’s curriculum to high school students across the U.S. The inaugural Iovine and Young Center (IYC) opened its doors in Los Angeles in 2022. The Iovine and Young Center at Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta is set to open in August 2024. Jimmy is a board member for several companies and organizations, including Live Nation Entertainment, XQ Institute, NTWRK, and Rosewood Creative. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
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Investment focus
- Software, Beauty, Media and Entertainment
- Seed, Series A, Series C
- United States, Israel, South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Stari — Stari is an entertainment tech platform that connects stars and fans through personal stories.
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- Handle — 15 minute delivery by students for students
Gabriel Fong - CEO & Co-founder @ CallFixie
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Investment focus
- Apps, Hotel, Mobile Apps
- Seed
- Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- WaHome — WaHome is a home cleaning service matching platform. It connects cleaners to clients across Seoul. Moreover, WaHome provides safe and trustworthy helpers who have completed cleaning training. The company was founded in 2015.
- LTAI — LIberatrade uses companies existing data or SaaS supply chain data management tools to build more resilient supply chains. We drive growth while reducing logsitics costs, and improving access to capital.
- H2O Hospitality — H2O Hospitality is the largest vacation rental management company in Japan and Korea. H2O manages accommodation facilities without any on-site human resources by automating all the operational flows through the property management system (“PMS”) H2O developed that links and manages calendars between the guests, rooms, and housekeepers. This allowssignificant decrease in fixed cost of the operational expenses, increasing the yield of the facility.
Songyee Yoon
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Investment focus
- Software, Film, Hardware
- Seed, Series B
- United States, South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- AI SPERA — AI Spera provides AI driven security based on cyber threat intelligence
- Together AI — Together will enable researchers, developers & companies to leverage and improve artificial intelligence with an intuitive data, models & computation platform.
- Light Field Lab — Escape the Screen. We're creating a world where content escapes the screen and merges with reality.
Sunghwan Choi
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Investment focus
- Software, FinTech, Financial Services
- Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- United States, Hong Kong, South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Jerry — Jerry is an AI, ML, and bot-powered car ownership app that saves customers time and money on car expenses. With its first product, Jerry redesigned and disrupted the century-old car insurance process, turning stacks of pages and hours of calls into a handful of clicks. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Palo Alto, California.
- CHAI — CHAI is a mobile payments dApp that allows consumers to pay for items online by simply adding their bank account.
- Sequin — Sequin is on a mission to fight the Pink Tax with cashback rewards & money education.
Perry Ha is the founder of DFJ Athena, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliate venture fund focused on investments in Korea and the US.He has been an active investor since 1998 when he founded Athena Technology Ventures.He has invested in and/or served on the board of many successful companies including Ipivot (INTC), Demandtec (DMAN),Imparto Software (PKS), ProfitLogic (ORCL), and Zantaz (AUTNF).He also served as an interim CEO at two companies. He currently serves on the board of several companies in Korea and the US.Prior to his venture capital career, he led the Technology Management Practice at Gemini Consulting, a global management consultancy, helping Fortune 1000 clients to manage technology portfolios and develop new products. Prior to that, he managed an R&D Group at Amicon, a life science devices company, which was successfully sold to Milipore in 1994. He was granted two patents during his tenure at Amicon.He serves on the board of Korean American Society of Entrepreneurs (KASE), on the Visiting Committee at MIT, and on the Leadership Board of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research.He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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Investment focus
- Apps, Rental, FinTech
- Seed, Funding Round
- United States, South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- SWING — SWING is a micro-mobility service provider.
- Precursor Energetics — Precursor Energetics utilizes state-of-the-art inorganic and organometallic chemistry, coupled with advanced process engineering and materials science, to satisfy the need for high value advanced materials within the electronics and energy markets. Our technology can fundamentally change the way that many of these materials are produced.Precursor Energetics’ proprietary molecular precursor ink technology provides atomic-level control over material structure and composition. It thereby improves material uniformity, performance, and yield while enabling high-throughput manufacturing processes using low-cost printing and coating methods.Our technology platform is applicable to a wide range of markets, including thin film solar, Li-ion batteries, transparent conductors, LED lighting, and others.
- Zeuss Technologies — Zeuss Technologies develops next generation blockchain-based Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) technology for cash intensive industries. Zeuss’ software non-intrusively monitors and verifies all financial activity across industries and efficiently fulfills federal regulatory compliance obligations.
Cristian Manea is the Co-founder and CEO at Aggero.
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Investment focus
- Gaming, Internet, PC Games
- Seed, Pre-Seed
- United States
Portfolio highlights
- XOCIETY — The XOCIETY metaverse is being developed by a well-established team of over 50 developers with decades of experience in the tech and web2 gaming fields.
- Unbound Nation — We connect gaming NFT owners and gamers via a single interface - the Unbound platform. Lend and borrow your gaming NFTs here in an easy & seamless way.
- SuperDuperSecret — The developer's initial game, Royale Chess, a ten-player battle royale chess game, is the first of many to be released on their meta-game platform, which focuses on multiplayer, evergreen games.
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
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Investment focus
- Software, FinTech, Health Care
- 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.
- Right Rice — RightRice is a tasty new rice grain that's made from vegetables. It's what they all love about rice, but made even right-er. RightRice is a complete, plant-based protein that's delicious, nutritious, and easy to cook. Every bowl of RightRice has more than double the protein, five times the fiber, and almost 40 percent fewer net carbsthan a bowl of white rice. Just like rice, RightRice soaks up your favorite flavors and sauces. Original RightRice is ready to season your own way, or you can try one of their delicious, already seasoned varieties like Lemon Pepper, Spanish or Garlic Herb—all using real herbs and spices, nothing artificial, non-GMO, vegan, and a complete source of protein, all with a low glycemic index.
- The Plug Drink — The Plug Drink is made with 100% natural ingredients. Bounce-back faster than ever.
Korea University, BSc
KAIST, MSc
U. of Maryland, Entrepreneurship
A.T Kearney Research Assistant
LOTTE HQ In-house-consultant
SK planet RecoPick Biz. Development
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Investment focus
- Consulting, Professional Services, Information Technology
- Pre-Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- Draph — Draph provides cloud solutions and services for product image production and automated optimization to enhance product sales and advertising efficiency. Draph is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea and was founded in 2022.
McKelvey grew up in a "five-mother collective" in Eugene, Oregon.[2] His family started and ran a weekly newspaper called the Eugene Weekly.[3]In a January 2020 interview with Fortune, McKelvey called himself "a wild kid" on the high school basketball court. He said that he found a sense of accountability from his coach, whowas a strict disciplinarian. He said of Coach Stepp, "I didn’t grow up with my father, so I never had someone telling me to keep in line
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Investment focus
- Real Estate, Rental, Software
- Pre-Seed, Series A
- South Korea, United States
Portfolio highlights
- Kambio — Kambio helps custom home builders build and sell more homes in less time using our real-time 3D home configurator platform and modular architecture for prefab.
- Dongnae — Dongnae provides an online real estate platform that digitizes the rental and home-buying market. The company's platform assists users to find the right house based on their needs and purpose, even find easy transport to work from the resident with the assistance of the brokers, enabling users to save time and energy on finding the right placeto stay in.It was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.
Fernando Martinelli is the Co-Founder and CEO at Balancer Labs. He was the Co-Founder of Brasil Mate before that.
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Investment focus
- Blockchain, Financial Services, FinTech
- Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
- United States, Brazil, France
Portfolio highlights
- Gyroscope — Gyroscope: an asset-backed stablecoin built on resilient DeFi infrastructure leveraging a diversified reserve, autonomous monetary policy, and innovative AMMs
- Zaros Finance — Zaros is a protocol that provides efficient liquidity, boosts staking rewards from LSTs, and aims to become the preferred liquidity hub for on-chain derivatives.
- Fantom Foundation — Fantom is a next-gen Layer-1 platform for DeFi, dApps and businesses.
Sam Kazemian is the Founder of Frax Finance.
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Investment focus
- Finance, Blockchain, Financial Services
- Seed, Pre-Seed
- Singapore, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- Eigenpie — Eigenpie is a restaking SubDAO that gives holders of Liquid Staking Tokens the chance to enhance their earning potential by restaking assets.
- RISE Labs — The Gigagas Layer 2
- t1 protocol — t1 protocol cross-chain applications and scalability are facilitated by real-time proofs and immediate settlement.
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.
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Investment focus
- SaaS, Bitcoin, FinTech
- Seed, Series A, Series B
- South Korea, United States
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.
Samuel Ahn is the current Chief Innovation Officer of Match Group. He attended Seoul National University.
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Investment focus
- Child Care, Elder Care, Health Care
- Seed
- South Korea
Portfolio highlights
- VivaLabs — VivaLabs is a health tech company that analyzes senior health data with AI technology and implements a personalized exercise prescription system to provide scientific strength training programs.
Blaine Vess is the Founder of Immeasurable. Attended at Y Combinator.
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Investment focus
- Software, FinTech, Financial Services
- Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
- United States, India, United Kingdom
Portfolio highlights
- Kredi — Kredi is Rocket Mortgage for LatAm. Customers can easily secure a mortgage online.
- Milk Video — Milk Video helps increase page conversion and drive traffic from social. Remix existing video content into high conversion trailers, snippets, and more.
- Yummy — Superapp of Venezuela & Quick Commerce for LATAM
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