Top 25 Social Startup Investors in South Korea in January 2025

Investor	Social South Korea investments
Kakao Ventures	4
D3 Jubilee	2
Lee Seung Ho	2
Hana Financial Investment	2
Big Basin Capital	1
Neptune Investment Management	1
POSCO CAPITAL	1
Z Venture Capital	1
Kaist Venture Investment Holdings	1
Goodwater Capital	1
Capstone Partners	1
Kclavis	1
Primer Sazze Partners	1
POSCO Venture Capital	1
Alumni Partners	1
We Ventures	1
SparkLabs Global Ventures	1
East Gate Partners	1
Mirae Asset Venture Investment	1
Stonebridge Capital	1
East Gate Partners	1
AUM Ventures	1
Base Investment	1
Square Ventures	1
Stone Bridge Ventures	1

We are an independent subsidiary of Kakao Corp. & the most active, startup-friendly early stage VC of Korea. (Limited Partnerships, not strategic.).

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence
Seed, Series A, Series B
South Korea, United States, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Albus — Albus is a content company that creates games and VR content services.
Kompass — Kompass is building the world's first comprehensive fertility monitor that is portable, easy to use, and low cost. We're breaking barriers to fertility care and redefining blood testing for accessibility and affordability.
Trillion Labs — Trillion Labs operates as an AI company.

D3 is headquartered in Seoul and San Francisco, pioneering the domestic and global impact investment areas. D3 redefines the role of capital by investing in entrepreneurial innovation that improves the lives of low-income families, women, and immigrants, and creates an environmentally sustainable world.Invest in ICT start-ups with highsocio-environmental value in low-income countries such as Korea, USA and South America, Africa and India.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Health Care
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
South Korea, United States, Kenya

Portfolio highlights

Geogrid — Geogrid is a building water purification plant startup. Geogrid digitizes solutions for tap water, including purification systems, pipe cleaning, water quality control, carbon emissions calculation, building water control, and environmental change monitoring.
Skycool Systems — At SkyCool Systems, our mission is to deliver sustainable, energy-efficient cooling solutions to customers interested in reducing energy costs and carbon footprint. We’ve pioneered radiative cooling as a technology, and shown that specially designed optical films can enable this passive approach to cooling throughout the day. These optical filmsare highly reflective to sunlight but also emit thermal radiation exceptionally well to the cold of space through our atmosphere, enabling daytime operation during the hottest hours of the day. Our core innovation is a rooftop cooling panel. We apply the radiative film to rooftop panels and integrate them with air conditioning and refrigeration systems. The panels can be used as an add-on to air conditioning and refrigeration systems and in some circumstances even replace an air condensing unit. Our technology is accelerating the transition to a cleaner and more sustainable future.
Caredoc — CareDoc is an elderly care professional platform that provides information on proven elderly care facilities. Consumers looking for elderly care services were not able to find the information they wanted online or getting inaccurate information through word of mouth.On the other hand, providers of care services were having difficulty incollecting elderly customers. Caredoc solves these problems by providing verified care servise provider information on the mobile.

Lee Seung Ho

Investment focus

Audio, Social, Sports
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Bookers — Bookers provide a range of reading-related supplemental services, including reader selection and book discussions.
Space F — Space F is an application industry platform business company that researches and develops cell farming technology.
Frientrip — Bored of the same old daily life, but not sure where to begin? Or you know what you want to do, but your friends don't share that same interest? Frientrip was born to satisfy these needs. Frientrip is a social activity platform which allows people to gather and enjoy various outdoor/indoor activities together.As the biggest platformof its kind in Korea, Frientrip believes that everyone can lead a more energetic life by trying out new things and meeting new people. Therefore, we aim to create a community where people enhance their experience and share it with one another, as our slogan goes -- WE INSPIRE PEOPLE TO EXPERIENCE THE WORLD.

Hana Financial Investment Company Limited offers brokerage, securities dealing, underwriting, mutual funds, and online trading services

Investment focus

Information Technology, Biotechnology, Health Care
Series A, Series B, Seed
South Korea, Singapore, India

Portfolio highlights

Trustay — Trustay is a real estate asset management company.
AIZEN Global — AIZEN is redesigning Digital Banking with CreditConnect, powered by our proprietary ABACUS AutoML platform specialized in the financial services industry. CreditConnect is an AI lending platform designed to bridge the gap between banks and data economy platforms, and automate key decision-making processes in accordance with the credit cycle. Thecompany has secured Series B round funding from a state-led fintech innovation fund (K-Growth) led by major Korean banks to roll out CreditConnect in Southeast Asia.We are also leading the digital transformation in the financial services industry using proprietary AutoML platform ABACUS, with successful use cases in underwriting, fraud detection, product development, claim analysis, and more.
Kuntian New Energy — Hebei Kuntian New Energy is a producer of anode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

Big Basin Capital is a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, investing in early-stage startups in Korea and the United States.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Software, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
South Korea, United States, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Recl — Recl is an application that collects and recycles old clothes.
mAy-I — mAy-I is a tech startup that develops advanced human tracking solution based on machine learning techniques.
Lynens — Linenance prioritizes operational excellence by systematizing the entire process, from customer contracts through washing. We believe that operational excellence leads to affordable rates and that reasonable rates lead to customer happiness.

Neptune is a UK-based fund management company offering a range of ISA-friendly equity funds to private investors, advisers and institutional clients.

Investment focus

Gaming, Social, Medical
Seed, Series A, Series B
South Korea, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

HAEGIN — HAEGIN is a game development company.
Bob Games — A Social casino game developer.
Vaccitech — Vaccitech is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapeutics and vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and cancer. The company’s proprietary platform comprises proprietary modified simian adenoviral vectors, known as ChAdOx1 and ChAdOx2, as well as thewell-validated Modified Vaccinia Ankara, or MVA, boost vector, both with demonstrable safety profiles and without the ability to replicate in humans. The combination of a ChAdOx prime treatment with subsequent MVA boost has consistently generated significantly higher magnitudes of CD8+ T cells compared with other technologies and approaches. The company has a broad pipeline of both clinical and preclinical stage therapeutic programs in solid tumors and viral infections and prophylactic viral vaccine programs. Vaccitech co-invented a COVID-19 vaccine with the University of Oxford, now approved for use in many territories and exclusively licensed worldwide to AstraZeneca through Oxford University Innovation, or OUI. Vaccitech is entitled to receive a share of the milestones and royalty income received by OUI from AstraZeneca.

POSCO Capital offers financial services.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Biotechnology
Series A, Seed, Funding Round
South Korea, United States

Portfolio highlights

Surginex — Surginex is a biological drug development company that offers molecular biology, genetics, physical, and chemical analysis services.
H Energy — H Energy provides optimal operation of distributed resources and power brokerage services.
AIDIN ROBOTICS — AIDIN ROBOTICS redefine interactive sensors. Advanced force/torque sensor, proximity sensor for human-robot collaboration.

Z Venture Capital is the venture capital arm of Z Holdings that invests in companies that focuses on the insurance and finance industry.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Content, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Series B
Japan, South Korea, Thailand

Portfolio highlights

Hopae — On A Journey To Universal Trust. Finally implement a practical Decentralized Identity Solution.
Finfra — From application to decisioning to operations - FINFRA provides the necessary infrastructure and services for technology companies to embed financial services to their environment through a seamless integration.
Qlay — Qlay is an AI-automated global engineer hiring platform

Kaist Venture Investment Holdings is a startup company that invests in startups that solve social problems through innovative technologies. They invest in businesses that maximize synergy by pursuing both social and financial values at the same time. It focuses on five sectors including health, environment, education, elimination of inequality, andsocial infrastructure. Kaist Venture Investment Holdings was founded on October 31, 2014, and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Retail, Health Care
Seed, Angel, Grant
South Korea, Australia

Portfolio highlights

Tripsoda — Tripsoda is a travel agency that offers recruiting travel companions, planning trips, and booking travel products.
CHOOPERMARKET — Choopermarket sells winery and gift products.
Mockingbird — Mockingbird gives personalized mock exams for the CSAT utilizing an AI item suggestion system.

Goodwater empowers exceptional entrepreneurs everywhere to change the world for the better. They believe consumer technology is a force on earth, shaping culture and transforming the global economy at unprecedented speed and scale. They invest in promising entrepreneurs to solve pressing problems. As a combined force, Goodwater companies are aglobal force for change, poised to measurably improve billions of lives.

Investment focus

FinTech, Financial Services, E-Commerce
Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
United States, India, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Teachy — Teachy is a platform that doubles teachers time through artificial intelligence.
Tembo Money — Need help boosting your budget or accessing lower rates? Voted Best Mortgage Broker 2023 & 2022, our award-winning service is available 7 days a week.
Kast — Kast Finance provides open access, financial freedom, and rapid gratification services.

Capstone Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs seeking success with fresh ideas.

Investment focus

Software, Mobile, Gaming
Series A, Seed, Series B
South Korea, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

NUUA — Reinventing a better future for the travel industry.
Aberra — Aberra is using "Dister," an AI data analysis tool, to optimize sales for Coupang, one of South Korea's largest e-commerce platforms.
DeepSmartech — Innovative thin film coating Process, Equipment, Recipe, Turn-key provider

Kclavis pursues a stable return on customer assets. It provides technology-driven companies with investments and asset management services. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Seoul.

Investment focus

Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical, Therapeutics
Series A, Series B, Seed
South Korea, United States

Portfolio highlights

R&R Lab — R&R Lab is a semiconductor manufacturing startup that develops heat treatment equipment.
Inkle — Inkle is a facility data platform that offers industrial software technology services for equipment makers and producers.
Nuon Media — Nuon Media is an Internet e-book store that sells famous domestic romance martial arts fantasy fantasy novels.

Primer Sazze Partners - We like to find founders who are making the impossible happen through sheer force of will and a refusal to accept hard truths.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence
Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
South Korea, United States, Japan

Portfolio highlights

Bakatio — Bakatio enables accommodation providers to perform direct transactions on social media without using a platform.
Blux — Blux offers customized advertising solutions to customers.
Liberty Labs — Liberty Labs specializes in prompt engineering that allows them to build applications that showcase AI potential. Liberty Labs offers products such as Toolbuilder, regex.ai, Opencharacter, and CLN.me.

POSTECH Venture Capital Corporation(POSTECH VC) was founded and financed by POSCO to participate in SME(small and medium enterprise) Revitalization Policy in 1997 for the National Economy Restoration.We seek investment opportunities in diverse markets including Information Technologies, Advanced Materials, Bio Technologies, Renewable Energy,and Life Sciences.And we are to accelerate the commercialization of the valuable technologies from POSTECH(Pohang University of Science and Technology), RIST(Research institute of Industrial Science and Technology), and other institutes in Korea. More than 200 professors in POSTECH help POSTECH VC evaluate the technologiesPOSTECH VC is comprised of a team consisted of experienced venture capitalists who has previous experiences in successful startups, consulting firms, and executive management.We are currently investing from our several funds and manage over 60 billion Won.Our recent primary investment focus is on high growth opportunities in renewable energy such as bio-diesel and photovoltaic technologies.

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Health Care
Series A, Funding Round, Series B
South Korea, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

OKHOME — Pembersihan tanpa ribet, Hemat Waktu, Hidup Jadi Mudah
Pluto — Pluto provides a SaaS solution that includes both discovery and academic search engines customized for the institution.
NaraSpace Technology — NaraSpace Technology specializes in the design, development, integration, and testing of CubeSats and small space systems.

Alumni Partners is a venture capital firm based in South Korea.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Bakery, Local Business
Seed, Series A
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Dalol — Dalol is a bakery that sells snacks, cakes, and rice chips.
DEEPX — DEEPX is a Korean AI hardware system solution company.
Freshstore — We Love To Eat The Fresh Food

we ventures is a VC industry with innovative venture capitalists, who invest in creative, honest, and outstanding entrepreneurs.

Investment focus

Software, Health Care, Information Technology
Series A, Seed, Series B
South Korea, United States, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

ASWEMAKE — ASWEMAKE is a shopping app that delivers groceries.
Wello — Wello is a government business solution that offers a natural language processing-based business recommendation-application-management service.
Pin Therapeutics — Pin Therapeutics is founded in Feb 2017, fast growing stage with member composition of 25% in USA and 75% in Korea. Drug discovery leaderships are from global pharma and biotech companies along with talented scientists both in Korea and USA.* Active Focus - PinE3: E3 ligase screening cascade for identifying novel warheads - PinGLUE: Assaycascade for molecular glue degrader screening* Programs - Selective Molecular Glue Degrader (CK1α) - Molecular Glue Degrader Programs (5-6 Undisclosed) - PROTAC Program (1 Undisclosed)

SparkLabs Global Ventures is a venture capital firm that offers seed-stage investment services to firms in the SaaS, healthcare, education, IoT, fintech, mobile, commerce, HR, gaming, security, and VR industries. It was founded in Dec 2013 and is based in California.Exceptional entrepreneurs, that are building strong, category defining companiesat highly advantageous valuations – can be found anywhere. The company has a team that is highly experienced in finding such talent and helping our entrepreneurs to develop, grow, network, and scale into other markets throughout the world.

Investment focus

Software, Internet, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
United States, South Korea, Singapore

Portfolio highlights

Splab — Grow your influence and expand your network with events.
Nitra — Nitra offers expense management software that integrates with the banks to provide innovative loan products.
Tella — Service

East Gate Partners

Investment focus

Social, Logistics, Social Network
Seed, Series A
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Mesh Korea — Mesh Korea is an IT-based logistics startup, which established Korea's first last-mile logistics network and became the primary provider of integrated logistics services with in-house logistics solutions.VROONG, Mesh Korea's logistics brand, creates new value not only by providing delivery services, but also by connecting information.Currently, VROONG provides four services; premium delivery services, 'VROONG Prime', integrated logistics management solution, 'VROONG TMS', premium fresh food delivery services, 'VROONG Fresh', and premium delivery magazine, 'VROONG Collection.'With more than 80 VROONG Stations and 13,000 riders across the nation, VROONG provides faster and more accurate delivery services.
Yea Studio — Yea Studio values positive, sensitive, and passionate attitude and is committed to sharing valuable information globally and making a creative application.

Mirae Asset Venture Investment invests in specialized enterprises and provides technology, funding and management consulting.

Investment focus

Software, Biotechnology, Information Technology
Series A, Series B, Seed
South Korea, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

Class101 — Class101 is an online platform where people can make and enjoy hobbies.
Baropharm — Baropharm is an online e-commerce platform that sells pharmaceutical products for improved individual care.
HyperAccel — HyperAccel provides hardware solutions for developing AI applications.

Stonebridge capital, Stonebridge ventures, Specializing in Venture Capital, Private Equity Fund Management

Investment focus

Software, Information Technology, Mobile
Series A, Series B, Funding Round
South Korea, United States, China

Portfolio highlights

iTruck — iTruck is a transportation application that offers an integrated trading platform for used trucks.
onepredict — We offer a digital brain solution that diagnoses and predicts the status of key industrial assets based on industrial AI and IoT technologies.
OPENEDGES Technology — OPENEDGES Technology, Inc. is the world's only total memory subsystem and AI platform IP provider that delivers NoC interconnect, DDR memory controller, DDR PHY, and NPU IPs.

East Gate Partners is a venture capital firm specializing in investment for businesses.

Investment focus

Gaming, Apps, Software
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
South Korea, United States

Portfolio highlights

Biocom — Biocom is a green bio management company.
Groupware Pro — Groupware Pro is a business management company that provides software for groupware communication solution.
PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY — PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY provides DX-based AI solutions on INDOOR GEOLOCATION AND SMART SENSING through its INDOORPLUS+ IoT, Location Based System (LBS) and Real Time Location System (RTLS) platform in the fields of healthcare, manufacturing, defense, smart cities, and the public sector.More than 100 corporate customers in various business sectorssuch as healthcare, banking, manufacturing, retail, energy and public services have already chosen PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY to deploy industry grade solutions for employee safety, asset tracking & monitoring, security & access control, flow management and process efficiency. They have gained improvements in productivity and process efficiency while reducing their corporate risks and optimizing their procurement. Since its foundation in 2013, PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY has become a leading provider in South Korea and is expanding overseas.

AUM Ventures is an accelerator specializing in start-ups.

Investment focus

Apps, Social, Communities
Seed
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Shinol — Shinol is a social community app for matching friends of 5070 generations.

Base Investment connects private equity, strategic buyers, and private individuals with opportunities to invest. The company works with well-known, enormous national firms that are looking to acquire a business that will help them extend their brand or make better use of their current facilities.

Investment focus

E-Commerce, Food and Beverage, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
South Korea, United States

Portfolio highlights

cafe nono — Gathering together for quality discussions. Making your stories stand out. Join the community here and now!
Money Walk — Money Walk is a novel pedometer program that allows users to earn money simply by walking.' Creddy,' the yellow companion who loves to walk, will look after your health and your wallet. Install the Money Walk app right now and you'll be able to catch both health and money.
Building Care — Building Care is a building care management company that provides schedule management, cloud, and building statistics services.

Square Ventures operates as a venture capital firm.

Investment focus

Video, Retail, Software
Series A, Seed, Series B
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

T-Wave — T-Wave is a social fintech start-up company that operates 'I'm in', an app that collects money from all over the country.
Lunimedia — Game Platform
BLUEDOT — BLUEDOT develops cloud computing semiconductor IP applications to accelerate video processing and video encoding.

Stone Bridge Ventures invests in entrepreneurs with bold ideas that improve and expand people's lives, industries, and markets. They provide professional assistance and a network of contacts geared towards businesses in order to help them expand.

Investment focus

Artificial Intelligence, Software, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Series B
South Korea, United States, South Africa

Portfolio highlights

ANAFLASH — ANAFLASH Inc. is an NSF, DoD, NASA funded semiconductor startup, developing a brain inspired solution for energy efficient smart edge devices with a standard logic based non-volatile neuromorphic processor.
EcoRemix — EcoRemix produces recycled soil by developing Customized Concrete Mixing Technology.
INKA Entworks — INKA Entworks specializes in the field of digital rights management and mobile application security.