In his new role as head of corporate development, Leo Ahn will lead investor relations and strategic partnerships at Octen AI.
Leo Ahn has left his position as head of US Lotte Ventures, the US-based VC arm of Korean conglomerate Lotte Corporation, to join AI-native search infrastructure company Octen AI as head of corporate development. He will lead investor relations and strategic partnerships in his new role.
Speaking on his move away from corporate VC, Ahn shared, “I really enjoyed spending more than a decade as an investor across both financial and strategic investing. But with AI entering such a formative period, I wanted to experience this transformation from the inside rather than continue observing and investing from the outside.”
He also mentioned wanting to join a team with a clear and differentiated technical edge and Octen would give him the “rare opportunity to be part of that shift from the front line”.
Ahn joined Lotte Ventures in 2019 and took on the role of establishing and leading the unit’s US office in 2023. He invested in early and growth-stage companies across entertainment, consumer tech and data. Prior to this, he worked at VC firms East Gate Partners and Altos Ventures.
After nearly seven years as a corporate investor, Ahn believes his biggest learning has been that “creating synergy between a corporation and a startup is difficult, but sustaining it over the long-term is even harder – and ultimately more important. When the alignment is real, the potential for synergy can be enormous. Ultimately, it comes down to patience, trust and long-term relationship building.”
Founded in 2016, Lotte Ventures backs companies from early stages to series B that are developing technologies and products strategic to its parent firm’s businesses. This includes investments in biotechnology, robotics and advanced business sector startups.
Ahn shared insights on Lotte Ventures and how startups can work with Korean corporations in this GCV webinar in 2024: Pop, beauty and chips: How to invest in South Korea.
See all the recent deals by Lotte Ventures in the CVC Funding Round Database
Oishani Mitra
Oishani Mitra is the content manager for Global Corporate Venturing.
