Top 5 Social Impact Startup Investors in South Korea in January 2025

Last updated: Jan 2025 A list of 5 angel investors and VC (Venture Capital) funds that invest in Social impact startups based in South korea. We rank investors based on the number of investments they made in Social impact companies from South korea. We update this investor list every month.

Top 5 Social Impact Startup Investors in South Korea in January 2025

Investor	Social Impact South Korea investments
Young Song	2
Taekkyung Lee	2
Jung-hee Ryu	1
Kiha Lee	1
Douglas Guen	1

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Investor list

Young Song joined NComputing as Founder and CEO in 2003.Mr. Song brings over 20 years of technology vision and entrepreneurial leadership with a focus on products that deliver life-enhancing value to education, business and consumers. He has founded and operated several start-up ventures with an inherent talent and track record for turning ideasinto viable products and sustainable businesses. He is also active angel investor through his own investment vehicle, Booga Ventures and Big Basin Capital as a venture partner. He founded and currently is Chief Executive Officer of NComputing group. Prior to co-founding NComputing, Mr. Song was also the founder and CEO of DoubleSight Displays, a company that delivered affordable and cost-effective dual displays to businesses and consumers and successfully acquired by Erae Inc, TV and Monitor company in South Korea. In addition, Mr. Song co-founded and was vice president of product marketing for eMachines, a pioneer in bringing affordable computing to consumers. eMachines went NASDAQ in 3 years and acquired by Gateway Computer. He began his career as marketing director for both TriGem America Corporation and TriGem Computer, Inc.Mr. Song holds a Bachelor of Science in Electronics Engineering from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. He is also an active volunteer for several non-profit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and lives in Palo Alto with his family.

Investment focus

Travel, Software, Logistics
Angel, Seed, Funding Round
United States, South Korea

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.
Airmule — Airmule Founded in 2015 and built with love in Los Angeles, California, Airmule is a trusted community marketplace for anyone to affordably express ship worldwide with a traveler from a mobile phone or tablet.Whether across the country or the world, Airmule connects people to safely deliver packages anytime, anywhere at low rates and in lesstime. Airmule is the easiest way for people list their trip to earn money with their extra luggage space.
Talkwheel — Talkwheel is where you discuss what you are passionate about in life. We are ushering in the new days of mobile conversation. Want to argue over who has the cutest pet, debate politics, or talk about the Giants during the game? Talkwheel is the app for that!Instead of tweeting and getting no response, write in Talkwheel and find fellowaficionados to have meaningful conversations around topics you care about. Unlike most mobile forums, Talkwheel believes that forums don’t have to be ugly to be functional. That’s why we’ve designed a beautiful mobile app with you, the user, as the focal point. You can even continue the conversation at your desktop at social.talkwheel.com!

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.

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

Douglas Guen is the CEO and Founder of Primer. He previously worked at INICIS as a Founder and CEO. Douglas Guen attended Kyungpook National University.