The top 50: Jung Ho Kim, head of the overseas investment division, Samsung Ventures
Jung Ho Kim is the head of the overseas investment division for Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC) which is a corporate venturing arm of South Korea-headquartered conglomerate Samsung Group. The overseas investment division is located in the United States and Kim also acts as the head of Samsung Ventures America, a US branch office of SVIC.
SVIC makes stage-agnostic investments, early to pre-IPO stage, and concentrates on semiconductors, telecommunication, software, internet, bioengineering, carbon capture and utilization, medical technologies as well as fintech and insuretech.
Recent investments for the SVIC include participation in a $25m early-stage round for quantum computing specialist QC Ware as well as a role in the $74m funding round for TriEye, a developer of connected sensors. The unit also took part in the venture round for Jaguar Gene Therapy, an Illinois-based in treatments for genetic diseases, in March 2022. Other portfolio companies include SiFive, Niantic, SentinelOne, BigCommerce, Raxium, Swiggy and Gojek.
Kim took up his current role in the second half of 2021, having worked at SVIC for more than 15 years. Previous roles within the unit have been vice-president and senior vice-president based at its global headquarters in Seoul.
Before moving into the corporate venturing arm, Kim was a senior engineer at Samsung Electronics. He has a PhD in electrical engineering from the School of Electrical Engineering at Seoul National University.
