Top 50 Software Angel Investors in South Korea in May 2025

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

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.

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

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.

Richard Seongho Choi

S Cubic Angels

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.

Sisun Lee is CEO at 82 Labs.

Shin Hyun Sung

Yoon Soo-young - CEO @ Trevari

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.

Shin Jae-sik serves as CEO at Nest company.

Sunghwan Choi

Justin Lubliner is a CEO of the Darkroom.

Cristian Manea is the Co-founder and CEO at Aggero.

Victor Wang is a Partner at HOF Capital. He attended the University of California Berkeley.

Hwang Seong-hyeon

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

Sachin Bhanot serves as the Head of Investments at Prosus Ventures.

Bongjin is the CEO & Co-Founder of Woowa Brothers.

Hyunjae Lee serves as Director of Public Policy at Woowa Brothers.

Matthew Papakipos

Primer Saje

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.

Han Ki-yong is an individual investor.

Bae Yong-joon (born August 29, 1972) is a South Korean actor and businessman.

Lee Dong -seok serves as Chairman at Coolidge Corner Investment.

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.

Jimmy Iovine is a 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 Electronics (Beats by Dre).Jimmy’s influential career began in the 1970s at Record Plant in New YorkCity. Early on, Jimmy was 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 with Ted Field and others, launching rap, pop, and rock artists such as future business partner Andre “Dr. Dre” Young, Nine Inch Nails, No Doubt, The Black Eyed Peas, Eminem, and Lady Gaga into international stardom. At Interscope Records, Jimmy put artists and their ideas first and empowered those artists to take their careers into their own hands.In 2006, Jimmy and hip-hop producer and trailblazer Dr. Dre co-founded Beats by Dre, a leading, high-performance headphone, earbud, and speaker company. Thanks to the stylish and sleekly designed headphones, and its expansion into smartphones and car audio systems, Beats by Dre secured the No. 1 spot in the billion-dollar-plus premium headphones industry. In early 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. Apple, Inc. acquired Beats by Dre and Beats Music in late 2014.During their time at Beats, Jimmy and Dr. Dre gained important insight into an educational divide that existed between the arts and technology. Witnessing this divide inspired them to provide the resources to launch a school offering an interdisciplinary curriculum where technology meets creativity rather than the two being siloed. With a $70 million donation in 2013, Jimmy and Dr. Dre endowed the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.The Academy — which opened its doors in 2014 — spearheads the careers of aspiring technologists, entrepreneurs, designers, and innovators hoping to drive societal change. The Academy provides an integrated learning framework, with undergraduate and graduate degrees focused on technology, communication, entrepreneurship, the liberal arts, and human-centered design. Looking to extend the Academy’s curriculum to high school students across the U.S., Jimmy and Dr. Dre co-founded the Iovine and Young Center (IYC), which is built on an interdisciplinary secondary education model that focuses on critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and real-world, project-based opportunities. Students learn skills centered around entrepreneurship, technology, and design, which are critical to the 21st-century collegiate landscape and workforce. The first IYC opened its doors in Los Angeles in 2022. Another location — at Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta — opened in August 2024. A second California location, this one in Inglewood, is set to open in the fall of 2025.Jimmy is a board member for several companies and organizations, including Live Nation Entertainment, XQ Institute, Complex (or Complex NTWRK), Bizaar Studios, and Rosewood Creative. He received a Wall Street Journal Innovator Award in 2014 and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Ahmet Ertegun Award in 2022.Jimmy is an investor in Bizaar Studios and Gin & Juice By Dre and Snoop, a canned cocktail and ultra-premium spirits brand.Follow Jimmy Iovine on Instagram (@jimmyiovine) and X (@jimmyiovine_), and subscribe to his YouTube (@jimmyiovine_).

Sebastien Borget is the Co-founder and COO of Pixowl. Passionate for blockchain technology, gaming and education, he is a very active speaker and evangelist who spent the past 8 years focused exclusively on mobile gaming, creating successful games that were downloaded millions of times.

Bashar Hamood is a Venture Partner at FasterCapital. He previously worked as an Associate Director at Logica. He attended Heriot-Watt University.

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.

Yeo Byeong-min serves as CEO at DTR Partners.

Solme Kim is President and Chief Product Officer at Kajabi. He attended The University of Texas at Austin.

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.

Songyee Yoon

Tim Draper is the Founding Partner of Draper Associates. He attended Harvard Business School.

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.

Martin Randel - Co-Founder, Board Member and Owner @ Vitamin Well

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

Paul Wachter has served as a member of our board of directors since August 2015. Since 1997, Wachter has been the Founder and CEO of financial and asset management advisory firm Main Street Advisors in Los Angeles. Prior to forming Main Street Advisors, from 1993 to 1997, Wachter was Managing Director of Schroder & Co. Incorporated, aninvestment banking and asset management company. He has also served on the board of directors of Time Warner Inc., a publicly-traded media company, since 2010 and the board of directors of Avalanche Biotechnologies, Inc., a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company, since 2014. Wachter has served as a Regent on the University of California Board of Regents since 2004. Wachter brings financial expertise and general business experience to our board of directors and his experience as a director of public companies provides our board of directors with valuable insights to assist in achieving our goals.

Gabriel Fong - CEO & Co-founder @ CallFixie

Justin Drew Bieber is a Canadian pop musician, actor, and singer-songwriter. He was discovered in 2008 by American talent manager Scooter Braun and has since driven over 3 billion views to YouTube, gained nearly 81M followers on Twitter, 68M followers on Instagram, and 77M fans on Facebook.

Sangmin Shim was the CEO and Founder of HogangNono. Sangmin Shim is the current CEO of Cafe Nono.

Alex Shin

Hesham Zreik is the CEO of FasterCapital. He previously worked at DreamApps as a Project Manager. Hesham attended the University of Westminster.

Choi Seong-ho is the chairman of the AI ​​Angel Club.

Chester is 13 year-long serial entrepreneur with successes such as IPO and M&A with Google. His current company, Ablar Company, is the fourth start-up with a great vision to connect offline world more into online. He worked as a product manager at Google Korea after his last start-up, Tatter&Company had been acquired by Google in 2008.Before Tatter&Company, he founded two more companies, one of which had successfully done the IPO. He also worked as a product manager at SK Telecom, where he developed intelligent personalization system for mobile phone users. Chester received his bachelor’s degree in Management Engineering from KAIST.He's also been an active angel investor and business mentor in the companies like, Ticket Monster (Recently merged to LivingSocial), Paprika Lab, LIFO interactive, Sha.kr Media, Ultra Caption Corp (klassmate.com), Flyfan (clubvenit.com) and J3T (stylesays.com).

Sanghee Lee

Andrew McGlinchey is the VP of Products at PropertyGuru Group.