Yong-Jung Park, founding general partner of Naver Ventures, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2026 Powerlist.
Yong-Jung Park was appointed as founding general partner of Naver Ventures, a newly formed corporate venture capital subsidiary of South Korean internet company Naver, last year.
Launched in May 2025, Naver Ventures operates out of Silicon Valley to invest in technologies and startups in the US with the goal of integrating them into the parent company’s broader artificial intelligence strategy.
Park has a commitment to investing $100m-plus per year at the growth stage (series B/C). Its investments in the US this year include agentic AI platform Netomi and AI agent platform developer Enhans, complementing those in South Korea under Sanghwan Yang’s Naver D2SF such as food-scanning solutions developer Nuvilab, service robots developer Khameleon and AI workflow automation platform CNAPS AI.
Park’s plan is to establish Naver Ventures as the premium Asian CVC active in the US.
Naver, known as the Google of Korea, is understood to be seeking a more aggressive development in AI. Although it has developed its own large language model, it has struggled to match the capabilities of rivals like OpenAI and China’s DeepSeek.
Naver has also tapped its corporate venturing portfolio for strategic collaboration and integration across the group, including V.Do, an AI computer vision startup discovered and backed by Naver D2SF that was later acquired by Naver Webtoon.
In addition to direct investments, Park has helped Naver make limited partner commitments to investment firms DST Global, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, among others.
Park was previously appointed as the US head of Naver D2SF, the CVC and startup accelerator arm of Naver, in July 2024. Prior to that, he was an investment director at Naver, a role he had held since 2018.
Park also played a role in Naver’s earlier SEA and India-focused investment activity through the Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, part of the company’s broader partnership with Mirae Asset Management.
Naver’s discipline and success has positioned it as a trusted partner among deep tech entrepreneurs, particularly in Asia through Yang, and increasingly in the US under Park.
The next phase will be about scaling that model with discipline: maintaining a clear investment edge in a competitive AI market while continuing to support globally ambitious startups through Naver’s technology, product and business ecosystem.
The GCV Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.
Here’s a snapshot of their recent deals:
