April 24, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Ticket Monster founder Daniel Shin and former Kakao Chief Strategy Officer Kang Joon-yeol have recently set up a new private equity firm Bass Investment aimed at offering better support for early-stage startups, according to the firm on May 3.

In addition to the two, Joo Hwan-soo, former service chief of KakaoTalk, has joined as CEO. 

Daniel Shin (left) and Kang Joon-yeol

“There are a lot of venture capitalists here but not many of them are investing in early-stage startups who need more support,” Shin said in a statement. “Along with financing, we plan to offer more practical tips for them to grow.”

Bass Investment aims to invest in early-stage startups, mostly those in their pre-Series A funding round, along with overall support for strategy, team-building and service improvement.

The firm has secured a total of 28.6 billion won (US$26.50 million) funds from multiple investors, including K Cube Holdings, the second-largest shareholder of Kakao, Naver and Com2uS.

Shin who founded Ticket Monster, one of the nation’s largest e-commerce firms, 10 years ago has more recently been investing in startups as an angel investor, while Kang was one of the first members of Korean internet firms like Kakao and Naver and serves as an outside board director of Dunamu, the operator of Upbit, one of the nation’s largest crypto exchanges.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)