Kakao Ventures said on the 24th that Director Jang Dong-wook, who has overseen investments in the information and communications technology (ICT) services institutional sector, was promoted to senior managing director and appointed partner in charge of services.
Since joining Kakao Ventures in 2014, Partner Jang has served as Head of Team, senior manager, and director, leading early-stage investments in the consumer and services space. Jang is an expert in consumer and services investments who has focused on identifying startups that solve consumers' everyday problems and companies that raise the productivity of corporations and small merchants.
In 2016, as the first institutional investor, Jang invested in Karrot and for years joined the board as a non-executive director. That investment recorded a 182x multiple on a partial exit basis, and Karrot and Korea Credit Data have risen to unicorn status.
Socialbean, which Jang first invested in in 2018, is preparing to list by the end of this year, and numerous daily-life platforms such as Rapport Labs, TimeTree, Buffett Seoul, Macaron Factory, Travel Wallet, and Living Labs are also continuing healthy growth.
Partner Jang graduated from the Department of Economics at University College London and joined Kakao Ventures after working as an internet and gaming analyst at Hana Financial Investment. The company said Jang is evaluated as a leader who not only has investment capabilities built in the field for more than 10 years but also demonstrates respect for founders and the execution to research a changing market independently and share insights across the organization.
With this appointment, Partner Jang will lead Kakao Ventures' services investment institutional sector and take the lead in proactively identifying and investing in innovative services for the AI-native era. Based on experience witnessing structural shifts in the industry on the ground—from the early days of app services to the heyday of platforms and the AI transition—and leading investments through them, there are expectations Jang will successfully write Kakao Ventures' next chapter.
Kakao Ventures Partner Jang Dong-wook said, "I view this promotion and partner appointment not as a personal achievement but as being entrusted with greater responsibility," adding, "Investment, in the end, is about recognizing the potential of people and teams before the numbers. I will not forget that, and in the AI-native era, I will be the investor who discovers first and supports the longest the teams that build services loved for a long time and resilient companies."