Park Seongchan, Son of Danal Chairman, Enters Venture Capital

Joining Laguna Investment's Investment Division
First Investment Destination 'Namanui Doctor'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Park Hyukjin, son of Park Seongchan, chairman of Danal who created the first-generation venture success story in Korea, is drawing attention as he jumps into venture investment. It is expected to be noteworthy what role he will play at Danal after completing his investment training.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 9th, Park is currently working as an investment analyst at Laguna Investment, a newly established venture capital (VC) firm. Park graduated from the music management department at Berklee College of Music and joined Laguna Investment after working in the alternative investment team at SKS PE.

Despite his music background, he has steadily built experience related to investment. He is making efforts to expand his industry network while continuously studying. Recently, he also made an investment in Meraki Place, the operator of the non-face-to-face medical application ‘Namanui Doctor’.

Laguna Investment is a venture capital company established in February 2018. Currently, five members are active in the investment division and three in the management division. The company has rapidly expanded its business and surpassed 100 billion KRW in assets under management (AUM). It is currently managing 16 ‘Laguna’ series funds.

The largest shareholder is the game company Joycity. Partner Park Youngho, CEO Park Hyeongjun, and Executive Director Koo Kyungmo attempted to establish a limited liability company (LLC)-type VC. During this process, Joycity, a KOSDAQ-listed game company with connections to them, proposed an investment, which led to the current governance structure.

Joycity holds a 51% stake as the largest shareholder, while the remaining shares are divided among the three partners. Partner Park also served concurrently as CEO of Joycity. Although Laguna Investment is affiliated with a game company, it aims to be a comprehensive VC that covers various fields including youth startups, ICT, and bio.

Park is known to focus mainly on investments in the platform industry. Having selected Namanui Doctor as his first investment, attention is on whether he will discover additional portfolio companies.

Meanwhile, interest is growing in Danal Investment Partners, a venture capital firm in which Danal holds an 80% stake. It took its first step at the end of 2019 under the name Danal Holdings, secured professional personnel, and currently operates under this name. So far, it has invested in ‘Nature Mobility,’ which provides price comparison services for rental cars, and ‘BlaBla,’ a community-type audio platform company.

Industry insiders believe that after Park secures a track record, he is likely to move to Danal Investment Partners, founded by his father Park Seongchan. A venture capital industry official predicted, “Although he is currently working as the youngest analyst at Laguna, he is expected to take on an important role at Danal Investment Partners in the future.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.