Rising Stars Q&A – Michelle Moon, LG Technology Ventures

Dong-Su Kim, chief executive of LG Technology Ventures (LGV), a corporate venturing arm of South Korea-headquartered electronics, chemical and telecoms conglomerate LG, said: “Michelle has very quickly acquired the necessary skills to become a solid performer within the investment team. In less than a year, she already worked on some marquee deals including Amwell which recently went public. She is also a true team player supporting the managing directors with various assigned tasks.”

1. First, just give us a quick overview of who you work for, what you do, and how long you’ve been doing it.

I work on the investment team of LGV, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am one of six people on LGV’s investment team. I am involved in all steps of our investment process from sourcing, due diligence and deal execution to portfolio management. Since joining this team in October 2019, I have been involved in a number of investments including H2O.ai (an autoML enterprise SaaS company), Amwell (a leading telehealth company that went public on the NYSE recently) and OTI Lumionics (a material discovery platform).

2. What attracted you to CVC?

I see working at LGV as a compelling opportunity to simultaneously create both financial and strategic value. LG Corp, a century-old organisation, has an incredible legacy inventing and commercializing a wide range of products, ranging from OLED televisions and smartphones to the world’s leading EV lithium-ion batteries. Constantly rejuvenating and reinventing itself to be at the forefront of technology, LG has always been focused on aggressively pursuing both internal and external sources of innovation. I see what my team at LGV does as a critical piece of LG’s open innovation efforts.

On the other hand, LG has deep expertise in large-scale manufacturing and go-to-market strategies. I find these capabilities to be incredibly relevant when I speak to entrepreneurs who are idea-rich but usually resource-light. This is one of the most natural cross-pollination opportunities that I see between LG and the startups that we invest in.

In conclusion, I am always thinking about how to deliver unique value to LGV’s most important stakeholders: LG Corp and the entrepreneurs that we invest in.

3. What have been your greatest successes at your unit?

• Lead the firm’s geographic coverage in Canada; serve as an associate adviser to Creative Destruction Lab, a leading accelerator based in Toronto
• $500,000 equity investment in Insider GMP (series C), a digital marketing enterprise SaaS company (pending)
• $5m equity investment in Syte (series C), a product discovery enterprise SaaS company
• $5m equity investment in Amwell (series C-5), an integrated telehealth enterprise software company that recently went public (NYSE:AMWL)
• $3m convertible debenture investment in H2O.ai, a data science (autoML) enterprise SaaS company
• $1.8m equity investment in SeeQC (series A), a quantum computing platform company (pending)
• $1m convertible debenture investment in OTI Lumionics, a material discovery platform using AI and quantum

4. What have been your biggest challenges?

My biggest challenge is that occasionally there is limited alignment between the startups that I find interesting and LG’s current business. For example, given the challenges and opportunities that we see in the US health care system and my background in health care, I would love to see LGV pursue investments in this area more aggressively. However, LG’s current business touching health care is very limited. Despite this challenge, my team was able to make investments in Amwell and Zebra Medical (an AI-powered medical imaging software) this year, which I am very proud of. This was accomplished through a lot of creativity and thinking outside the box on the part of both LGV and LG’s business units.

5. What is your main professional ambition for the future?

I aspire for a long-term career in the venture capital industry.

6. What do you think all CVCs could do better to make it a stronger industry?

I enjoy working with other CVCs on deals, because the unique views, experience, knowledge and background that each of them brings to the table are constructive to the deal process and eventually the portfolio company. I hope that CVCs will continue to be collaborative and intellectually honest as a community because at the end of the day this will help us be better investors. For example, I regularly exchange ideas with my contacts at TDK Ventures, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, BMW i Ventures and Gradient Ventures, and have a lot of respect for them.

Second, I hope that there is an increasing emphasis on financial value creation. Of course, CVCs exist to deliver strategic value to their sponsoring corporates. In addition, I believe that CVCs making smart investment decisions and delivering strong financial returns over the long term would continue to improve CVCs’ reputation as investors and strengthen the overall industry.

7. And, finally, for colour, what did you do prior to CVC or in your spare time?

Prior to joining LG Technology Ventures, I completed my MBA, majoring in Business Analytics and Entrepreneurship at The Wharton School. During my time at Wharton, I was involved in an early-stage medical device startup as a consultant and also worked on launching my own telehealth startup focused on mental health.

Prior to my studies at The Wharton School, I have six years of work experience in the investment industry, comprised of two years in investment banking at RBC Capital Markets, and four years at ARC Financial Corp, a leading Canadian private equity firm.

I inherited my love of the outdoors from my mother who was an amateur mountaineer. In my spare time, you are most likely to find me enjoying Mother Nature, camping or hiking with my dog. Of note, I summited Mount Kilimanjaro in 2018. In addition, being a stereotypical Canadian, I am an avid hockey fan. I have been playing for three years, and was a captain of a hockey team at The Wharton School.