Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2017: Changhan Lee

The purpose of Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars 2017 was to shine a light on the talented people working at the new units or below the top rank and hear their views and insights on the work being done and ideas developed that will change the industry in the future.

John Suh, executive director at Hyundai Ventures, the corporate venture capital unit of South Korea-based car company, understood this spirit when he nominated Changhan Lee for Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars 2017.

As Suh said: “He is one the silent ones in the world of global corporate venturing. He is based in Korea and so does not get the attention that my staff in Menlo Park [in California’s Silicon Valley] gets.

“Changhan is one of most thoughtful, humble CVCs I know. He has led or supported several important investments made by Hyundai Motor Company.

“It is a shame that he is not able to meet and mingle with the CVC crowd in Silicon Valley. I would very much like to see him get recognition even though he is virtually unknown in the CVC community and likely not in the database of CVCs or industry professionals.”

Lee said he joined Hyundai Ventures as an investment manager six years ago. “My organisation’s goal is to introduce new technologies and apply to mass production, giving our current potential customers with exciting experiences and performances. The greatest success is that we keep the adoption ratio of new tech to vehicle at over 50%. More than half of our portfolio companies have on-going business relationship with the mothership, Hyundai Motor.

“The biggest challenge is that CVC can take a long time to invest in startups because of high complexity, due diligence and internal approval process.

“These internal procures and hierarchy are challenging, but by building internal trust and reputation within the company, we were successfully able to meet the needs of startups as well as our investment committee.”

However, with the automotive industry “now facing with dramatic industrial change,” the role of CVC within Hyundai has been increase “from just sourcing new technology to leading development teams to innovate within”.

Lee majored computer engineering in the Kyungbook university and started his career as an information technology engineer in Hyundai Motors after receiving his MBA from Yonsei University.