Top 50 Software Angel Investors in South Korea

Investor	Software South Korea investments
Aviram Jenik	8
Daniel Shin	5
Jay Eum	3
Richard Seongho Choi	2
Taekkyung Lee	2
Pietro Dova	2
S Cubic Angels	2
Hwang Seong-hyeon	1
Jung-hee Ryu	1
Bashar Hamood	1
Chester Roh	1
Gabriel Fong	1
Seojoon Kim	1
Shin Hyun Sung	1
Hyunjae Lee	1
Jimmy Iovine	1
Bong Jin Kim	1
Primer Saje	1
David Lee	1
Seongho Choi	1
David Lee	1
Ed Sheeran	1
Sanghee Lee	1
Justin Lubliner	1
Ji-woo Song	1
Benjamin Joseph Levin	1
Louis Beryl	1
Jae-sik Shin	1
Victor Wang	1
Douglas Guen	1
Justin Bieber	1
Martin Randel	1
Songyee Yoon	1
Do Kwon	1
Lee Dong seok	1
Sebastien Borget	1
Perry Ha	1
Michael Yang	1
Tim Draper	1
Bae Yong-Joon	1
Sachin Bhanot	1
Matthew Papakipos	1
Byeong-min Yeo	1
Naval Ravikant	1
Luke Wood	1
Miguel McKelvey	1
Sunghwan Choi	1
Paul Wachter	1
Hesham Zreik	1
Han Ki yong	1

Founder x5, profitable bootstraps, 3 exits; investor x30+ in Israel, Silicon Valley and Korea; passion for: cyber security, building scalable B2B companies

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.

Investment focus

Software, Internet, Information Technology
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 business management solution to small and medium-sized businesses in Korea. KCD established a dominant position (M/S 70%+) through ‘Cashnote' and ‘Bizbot’ services used by more than 1.1 million businesses. KCD aims to resolve issues a business owner faces from the beginning to end of his business life.To this end, KCD will expand its business areas to include B2B commerce to B2C payment area.

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

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.

Richard Seongho Choi

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.

Taekkyung Lee - Representative Partner @ MashUp Angels

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.

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.

S Cubic Angels

Investment focus

Education, Apps, EdTech
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Savle — Savle is a purpose-based asset management and fun saving platform service for asset management beginners.
KRG Group — KRG Group is a rental guarantee company that offers rental management and rent deposit management services.
Turing — Reinvent Education with Technology

Hwang Seong-hyeon

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.

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, Health Care
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

Bashar Hamood is a result oriented professional with versatile experience across diverse organizational domains. He is well versed in the development of marketing strategies, branding, direct marketing, new products/brands launches, analysis, reporting, and positioning.He is an entrepreneur and self-starter with expansive experience in brandawareness and development, community outreach.Bashar is a versatile business manager with proven competencies in optimizing team dynamics uniting diverse agenda to common goal and harnessing strategic and operational drivers to deliver results.He has a strong analytical mind with rigorous study for each case and the output of each variation for each parameter.Bashar loves to take risk and new challenges.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Mobile Apps
Seed, Pre-Seed, Angel
United States, India, United Arab Emirates

Portfolio highlights

BubbleFuse — BubbleFuse will provide a platform for users to create and share their own digital content and products.
GrowBots — GrowBots is a web-based platform that helps small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
DataVizion — DataVizion is an innovative data visualization platform that enables businesses to easily create real-time visualizations of their data.

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 bachelorâ€™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).

Investment focus

Software, Apps, Beauty
Seed, Angel
United States, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

AWAIR — Awair's mission is to empower people worldwide to breathe safely wherever they spend time indoors. The company provides cutting edge technology that is easy to use and understand, as well as an intuitive software platform with actionable insights for IAQ improvement, enabling users to mitigate their indoor air for health and safety, be it athome, school, the workplace, or any other indoor space. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA and has a second office in Seoul, South Korea.
Memebox — Memebox Corporation is a consumer company that provides customers with the Asian beauty products, culture, and trends. A global company focused on forecasting trends and creating private, in-house labels inspired by K-beauty (and made for the product obsessed).
Typecast AI — The online AI voice generator that can turn your text into life-like speech. Over 400+ hyper-realistic voices. Create your content just the way you want it!

Gabriel Fong - CEO & Co-founder @ CallFixie

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.

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.

Investment focus

FinTech, Blockchain, Financial Services
Series A, Seed, Series B
South Korea, United States, India

Portfolio highlights

Ad-Shield — Start measuring revenue lost to ad blockers and learn how to get additional revenue through Ad-Shield Recovery today
Art Busan — Art Busan is the organizer of the Korean art fair brand
SWING — SWING is a micro-mobility service provider.

Shin Hyun Sung

Investment focus

SaaS, Computer, Internet
Seed, Series A
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Toss Lab — Toss Lab is a SaaS enterprise software company that provides enterprise messaging and collaboration tools. The company's platform JANDI, a group-oriented messaging platform with an integrated suite of collaboration tools that is tailor-made for workplaces in Asia. It also offers messaging and group chats. The platform serves companies rangingfrom small to mid-sized businesses to large enterprises with thousands of employees.Toss Lab was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea with offices in Taiwan, Dubai, Malaysia, and Japan.
LogiBrothers — Logibrothers provides a smart platform for kids to learn how to code and enhance their computaional thinking abilities.

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

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.

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.

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.
Yoom — TetaVi Ltd. is an Israeli-based start-up developing a method and system to generate high quality Free Viewpoint Video (FVV) content for sports, broadcast and virtual reality applications to be viewed on all available screens – TVs, mobile phones/tablets, laptops, VR/AR headsets.
Handle — 15 minute delivery by students for students

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

Investment focus

Ticketing, Mobile Apps, Food and Beverage
Seed
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Ban Life — Ban Life is a mobile application that provides real-time information related to pet accommodations nationwide.
Vendys — Vendys offers mobile meal management solution for office workers.

Primer Saje

Investment focus

Artificial Intelligence, Sales, Software
Seed
South Korea, United States

Portfolio highlights

Dalpha — Simple, Fast, Affordable AI services. FREE AI Consulting, demo production. Fast AI service implement within 2WEEKS. 50% cost saving compared to existing AI Solutions
MakeDashy — Maximize repeat purchases with targeted user segmentation and dynamic product recommendation at Retentics, powered by AI

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, 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.
Story Protocol — Story Protocol is building open IP infrastructure to grow the creativity of the internet era.
The Plug Drink — The Plug Drink is made with 100% natural ingredients. Bounce-back faster than ever.

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

Investment focus

Health Care, E-Commerce, Retail
Seed, Angel, Series A
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Weperson — Weperson develops and operates a human resources software as a service platform.
ONES Global — ONES Global provides global healthcare solutions and databases for the healthcare market.
MyBrain — MyBrain's brain-only MRI can lower equipment costs through component miniaturization, lower maintenance costs and enhance maintenance through the use of conduction cooling technology, and improve diagnosis ease and accuracy through the development of AI diagnosis software. It is unique in that it can be improved.

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, 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.
Story Protocol — Story Protocol is building open IP infrastructure to grow the creativity of the internet era.
The Plug Drink — The Plug Drink is made with 100% natural ingredients. Bounce-back faster than ever.

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.

Investment focus

Content, Software, Media and Entertainment
Seed
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Stari — Stari is an entertainment tech platform that connects stars and fans through personal stories.

Sanghee Lee

Investment focus

Software, Cloud Computing, Machine Learning
Pre-Seed
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

CLIKA — Tiny AI, Everywhere

Justin Lubliner is a CEO of the Darkroom.

Investment focus

Content, Software, Digital Media
Seed, Series A
Israel, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Stari — Stari is an entertainment tech platform that connects stars and fans through personal stories.
Yoom — TetaVi Ltd. is an Israeli-based start-up developing a method and system to generate high quality Free Viewpoint Video (FVV) content for sports, broadcast and virtual reality applications to be viewed on all available screens – TVs, mobile phones/tablets, laptops, VR/AR headsets.

Song Ji-woo serves as CEO at Jiwoo Company.

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.

Benny Blanco is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer.

Investment focus

Content, Software, Media and Entertainment
Seed
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Stari — Stari is an entertainment tech platform that connects stars and fans through personal stories.

3X Founder of Earnest, SolidEnergy, and now working on the next one. Formerly a16z and YC. Active angel investor and board member.

Investment focus

Software, FinTech, Financial Services
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
United States, Canada, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

Stelo Labs — Read the lastest on web3 security from Stelo
Cashmere — Secure multisig solana wallet, built for teams. Send, receive, and grow your digital assets directly from your Cashmere Vault.
Meez Culinary Solutions — Organize, Train, Cost, Iterate, Collaborate, and Share your recipes and process.

Shin Jae-sik serves as CEO at Nest company.

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.

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

Investment focus

Artificial Intelligence, Biotechnology, Health Care
Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
United States, Singapore, India

Portfolio highlights

Heptabase — A note-taking tool for visual learning.
Extropic AI — The next era of computing isn't dead. It's alive. More coming soon.
Dialect — Discover the fastest, most intuitive, and safest way to trade tokens over chat

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.

Investment focus

Lifestyle, Retail, E-Commerce
Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
United States, South Korea

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.

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.

Investment focus

Media and Entertainment, Health Care, Information Technology
Seed, Series A, Funding Round
United States, South Korea, United Kingdom

Portfolio highlights

Stari — Stari is an entertainment tech platform that connects stars and fans through personal stories.
Legacy — Sperm testing and freezing should be simple, and now it is. Learn about fertility, analyze and preserve your sperm with Legacy, all from home.
MoonPay — MoonPay offers a fast and simple way to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Buy crypto with credit card, bank transfers or Apple Pay today.

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

Investment focus

Information Technology, E-Commerce, Mobile
Seed, Funding Round, Series A
Sweden, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Reve — Tipser is the global leader in embedded commerce, turning any digital surface into a point of sale. Discover a better way to monetize traffic.
Nordtech Group — Nordtech Group is a technology group consisting of software companies with industry-specific products. Common to its companies is that they deliver high customer values within their respective segments.
Covr Security AB — Covr Security meet the growing demand for highly secure, user-centric control over mobile security and digitized personal information. Covr is founded by serial entrepreneurs, including the developers of the digital verification standard currently used by the Swedish banking system.

Songyee Yoon

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.

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
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 — Hyperion is the most powerful and actionable portfolio management and market intelligence toolset for digital asset traders and investors.

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

Investment focus

Incubators, Crowdfunding, Enterprise Software
Seed
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

OpenTrade — OpenTrade (오픈트레이드) is a Korean business incubator focused on developing a communication-based crowdfunding platform for startups. Having identified lack of communication as the biggest stumbling block in attracting investments, the company has developed the platform to enable transparent communication between entrepreneurs, startups, andinvestors.OpenTrade’s crowdfunding platform enables startups to have ongoing communication with investors and thereby build a long-term relationship based on trust. OpenTrade also provides mentoring facilities in the areas of management, marketing, and finance.

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.

Investment focus

Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Gaming
Seed, Series A, Pre-Seed
United States, France, The Netherlands

Portfolio highlights

BlockGames — BlockGames delivers a cross-game and decentralized player network driven by Universal Player Profiles.
Bolero — Invest in the music rights of your favourite songs and get royalties on Bolero, the all-in-one marketplace to invest in Song Shares. Invest in music today!
PlayMakers — Capture, audit, and monetize user-generated content (UGC) in your game. Drive higher engagement, game longevity, and unlock monetization opportunities.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Investment focus

Software, FinTech, Financial Services
Seed, Series A, Series B
United States, United Kingdom, Canada

Portfolio highlights

Buupass — BuuPass is Kenya's market leader for online bus booking. We enable travelers to reserve seats and make payments in a convenient and timely way. Try BuuPass today!
SUN ZU Lab — SUN ZU Lab is a leading independent provider of Quantitative Analytics for Crypto Professionals.
SignalRank Corporation — SignalRank Corporation is a FinTech company in the Venture space. It focuses on the seed stage asset class and uses data analytics to allocate capital to the best seed fund managers for their top performing companies. GPRank and CompanyRank are two proprietary algorithms it leverages to automate capital allocation. The company invests from balancesheet. Its customers are seed stage investors with outstanding companies in their portfolio.

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

Investment focus

Apps, Hotel, Mobile Apps
Seed
Japan, 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.
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.

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

Investment focus

Financial Services, SaaS, FinTech
Series A, Seed, Funding Round
Australia, Singapore, Indonesia

Portfolio highlights

Neara — Neara electric utility software is a physics-enabled platform that builds 3D interactive models of critical infrastructure networks and assets. Request a demo.
Quotabook — Quotabook is a company that specializes in equity management.
Kismet — Find the best disability or healthcare service to support your journey

Matthew Papakipos

Investment focus

Music, Apps, Video
Seed, Angel, Funding Round
United States, South Korea, The Netherlands

Portfolio highlights

OP.GG — The Best LoL Champion Builds and Player Stats by OP.GG - Learn champion builds, runes, and counters. Search Riot ID and Tagline for stats of all game modes.
Ozarka — Ozarka B.V., based in Amsterdam, is a full service company offering solutions to any type of food vendor who wishes to transition from linear, single use packaging to circular, reusable packaging. We offer three integrated channels, ARK Reusables proprietary packaging, Packaging as a Service that collects, washing, and redistributes packaging, anda customer facing online ordering platform for delivery or takeaway packaging in reusable containers.
Eyegroove — Eyegroove is the social network for the music video and a technological platform that, for the first time, effortlessly brings together all the elements of great video: music, editing, and effects. It offers a mobile iOS application that allows users to choose a piece of streaming music, record video, and add interactive effects.

Yeo Byeong-min serves as CEO at DTR Partners.

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.
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.

Naval Ravikant is the CEO and a co-founder of AngelList. He previously co-founded Epinions (which went public as part of Shopping.com) and Vast.com. He is an active Angel investor, and have invested in dozens of companies, including Twitter, Uber, Yammer, Stack Overflow and Wanelo.

Investment focus

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

Portfolio highlights

Blush — Blush is a dating app that transforms online connections with community events, virtual courting, and bonding over shared local favorites. It is a dating platform for those valuing meaningful connections, local community, and a shared mission to inspire positive change in the world. The innovative matching algorithm of the company connects theonline and offline worlds. Users share favorite local spots, and the algorithm forms meaningful connections, fostering bonds over common interests. This personal approach grounds online dating in real-life experiences.
Sapien — Sapien, established in 2023, is a data labeling company dedicated to enhancing AI model training through scalable, high-quality data labeling services. By combining advanced technology, blockchain rewards, human feedback, and domain expertise, Sapien enables AI model development across multiple industries, including healthcare, finance, andeducation technology, among many others. The company's approach to data labeling through gamification and positive reinforcement ensures superior data quality output and high retention rates from labelers, and cost-effectiveness for customers. Sapien's commitment to quality, scalability, and customer focus, along with its mission to foster ethical and impactful AI advancements, sets it apart as a leading trusted partner for businesses developing high-performance AI models.
Mystiko.Network — Mystiko.Network enables users to trade on private DEX just like on Uniswap while users' financial privacy is protected. Users could transfer assets to a brand new secret and ultra-safe address with full privacy. Any wallet could provide its user's such features by implementing Mystiko Wallet SDK.

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.

Investment focus

Content, Software, Media and Entertainment
Seed
South Korea

Portfolio highlights

Stari — Stari is an entertainment tech platform that connects stars and fans through personal stories.

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

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.

Sunghwan Choi

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 — Step into your financial power today! Unlock access to high interest checking and expert guidance.

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.

Investment focus

Sports, News, Video
Seed, Series A, Series B
United States, South Korea

Portfolio highlights

ATTN: — ATTN: is a content network that helps young people understand and impact the world around them. It was launched in June 2014.
Stari — Stari is an entertainment tech platform that connects stars and fans through personal stories.
Fenway Sports Group — Fenway Sports Group (FSG) is a global sports, marketing, media, entertainment, and real estate platform anchored by two iconic clubs, the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool Football Club (LFC).

Hesham has been ranked #39 out of top 50 investors (Forbes 2018) based on investment and successful exits. Hesham has invested in +100 startups. He has co-founded more than 40 startups. He has a passion for building innovative start-ups around the principle of developing simple solutions to challenging problems. He is multilingual and can speak,read and write Arabic, English, French. He has also some good knowledge in German and Spanish. Hesham is a founder and CEO of FasterCapital. FasterCapital is an online incubator who has border-less reach. Hesham has already co-founded (as a technical cofounder) and invested as an angel investor in more than 40 startups and has helped expand FasterCapital to have more than 1000 regional partners, a network of 1000 mentors, +500 offices worldwide and more than 400 startups. Hesham has invested and helped improve and refine the product in each of the 40 incubated startups. During his work at FasterCapital, Hesham has co-founded: - co-founded Edunoor.com: online learning platform with social components. - invested in Dooet.com: a discovery and search engine for mobile applications and other content. - invested in Letuscloud.com: Bridging the gap between enterprises and virualization - invested in abcmob.com: Mobile business application. 18 sectors already covered. - invested in Mobayle.com: an instant AppStore creator and customizer - invested in Meody.com: Cross platform messenger with focus on enterprises and operators. - invested in TVlize.com: a platform for social and engaging TV - He also cofounded and invested in Nakkeb.com, BeamGift.com, PickTaxi.com, MobAdv.com, Bazarmaker.com, puttag.com, fulhost.com, Entablet.com, PinProfile.com, mp3ready.com, BookThatbook.com Newsanalyse.com, B2Butterfly.com and many more. He is also a mentor for more than 50 companies. Hesham started his first company ZGroup Mobile in 2002 with less than $20/month and grow it to reach a valuation of $2.5-$3.25 million in 2005 by Public company Incagold plc (it would have been the first company in MENA region to be acquired by a public company). ZGroup Mobile is a developer and publisher of mobile content (mobile games, mobile apps, mobile music, mobile videos) and services. He has been ranked 7th in Baccalaureate tests among 200,000th participants. He has completed his engineering degree at HIAST then he has done an MBA at Edinburgh business school and a Master in computer information science at AABFS.

Investment focus

Information Technology, Software, Mobile Apps
Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A
United States, India, United Arab Emirates

Portfolio highlights

TVlize — TVlize is a company specialized in improving and socializing TV experience. At TVlize we change the viewing experience from lean backward to lean forward.
AIR AGRO — MarketPlace para o mercado de Pulverização Áerea por drones, aviões ou helicópteros agrícolas. Auditoria em tempo real. Certificação dos fornecedores. Analise agronômica tempo real. Boas práticas e compliance que o mercado exige. Segurança Alimentar. Moeda Agro Cash Back que o produtor rural escolhe uma entidade da sua comunidade para ajudar oualguma cadastrada no nosso banco de dados. Produzir mais, com menos, de maneira sustentável e contribuindo com sua comunidade.
Dietfoodi — Dietfoodi is a cloud kitchen idea is essentially a kitchen space meant for production of food for delivery-only purposes. Since this food can be ordered online, hence, the name, Cloud kitchen. In this pandemic time cloud kitchen is a very supportive & positive business idea where we want to mix international cuisine cultural with very vastway.This commissary kitchen are also known as ghost kitchens, shared kitchens, or virtual kitchens with the delivery-only food brands operating within them called virtual restaurants. But moving to a delivery-only model has been made possible recently by advances in technology and changes in consumer habits. It offers certain advantages over offering delivery from a traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Han Ki-yong is an individual investor.

Investment focus

Software, SaaS, Fitness
Seed, Series A
South Korea, United States

Portfolio highlights

Bolta — Volta Corporation offers 'Volta,' a solution that eliminates the inefficiencies and hassle of e-tax invoice issuance and maintenance. Volta allows users to effortlessly issue electronic tax bills and manage them after they have been sent. Companies may dramatically enhance job efficiency by reducing unnecessary labor and time waste.
Dalam — Dalam is a corporate welfare matching platform.
Business Canvas — An easy-to-use workspace that transforms scattered information into your knowledge.