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Venture capital (VC) "Mangusta Capital," which has emerged as a rising force in the U.S. venture investment market by investing in Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) company "xAI," is coming to Korea. It recently adopted Korea as a strategic market for sourcing promising technology startups and has begun hiring on-the-ground investment professionals in Korea.
According to the VC industry on the 9th, Mangusta recently began hiring investment professionals based in Korea through its own network. The goal is to recruit partners who will be responsible for sourcing early-stage Korean startups and establishing a foothold in Korea, and Kevin Zhang, Mangusta's co-founder and representative, formerly of SoftBank Vision Fund, is said to be leading the hiring.
Mangusta was founded on family office funds from the Del Vecchio family, which owns the world's largest eyewear corporations, Luxottica. Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, considered the heir to the Del Vecchio family, joined as a co-founder, and the firm raised an $80 million (about 120 billion won) fund upon its 2024 launch.
Despite being an emerging VC, Mangusta quickly rose to become a key player in the U.S. venture market with backing from Luxottica. In addition to leading xAI's Series B fundraising, it has rapidly built a portfolio of promising AI technology corporations, including the tax AI company "TaxGPT" and the data platform "Sapien."
Mangusta's main strategy is vertical AI investments that reinvent consumer experiences with AI technology, and it is said to rate the potential of the Korean market highly. The view is that Korea already has information technology (IT) infrastructure and manufacturing and distribution capabilities, allowing it to serve as a global test bed and forward base for vertical AI platforms.
In particular, Kevin Zhang, Mangusta's co-founder and representative, is said to have a strong interest in Korea. Zhang was a founding member of SoftBank Vision Fund and is known to have led the investment when the Vision Fund injected $2 billion (about 2.25 trillion won) into Coupang in 2018, reshaping Korea's e-commerce market.
There is also speculation that Mangusta will move to expand a local office, starting with hiring a partner based in Korea. This comes as the main responsibilities of the planned partner reportedly include not only sourcing early-stage Korean startups in AI, software, and consumer tech, but also building a local presence and a limited partner (LP) network.
With Mangusta joining the fray, some say Korea has risen to become a key bridgehead for global VCs expanding into Asia. Previously, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the world's largest VC, also selected Seoul as the site of a16z Crypto's first Asia office. It is now recruiting core talent and has begun in earnest.
Adding to this, Warburg Pincus, which started as a VC and rose to become a global private equity fund (PEF) manager, is moving to invest in data centers with the goal of expanding AI infrastructure in Korea, signaling that the "Korea rush" by global heavyweights is accelerating. Late last year, U.S. VC Alcove Investment registered as a domestic accelerator (AC).
A complex set of geopolitical calculations and strategic judgments underlies the influx of global capital into Seoul. With direct investment in China curtailed by escalating U.S.-China tensions, Korea is seen as having solid IT infrastructure, capital liquidity, and a startup ecosystem open to foreign capital.
A VC industry official said, "This is the result of a combination of factors, including the Korean government signaling its intention to foster national strategic industries centered on semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as domestic startups' preference for overseas capital," adding, "Korean startups will have more opportunities to secure global capital and networks."