Mashup Ventures, an early-stage startup investment firm, said Wednesday it has created an "AI Partner" position — the first such role at a Korean venture capital firm — and appointed Yang Sung-min to the post.
The AI Partner role is designed to respond to the increasingly sophisticated AI industry landscape. The position is dedicated to strengthening Mashup Ventures' AI investment expertise and embedding AI technology across the entire investment process. From an engineer's perspective, the AI Partner will verify the technical moats of AI startups and provide hands-on support for portfolio companies' infrastructure expansion and product advancement.
Yang is currently leading a project to redesign Mashup Ventures' investment review and fund management systems to be AI-friendly. Examples include an investment AI agent that autonomously gathers and processes information on startups under review to generate analysis reports, and an operational AI agent that tracks and manages the status of hundreds of portfolio companies and fund returns in real time.
Yang is a first-cohort graduate of Software Maestro, a government-backed developer training program. He founded Myandby as a college student and sold it to Loen Entertainment. He subsequently served as AI software lead at drone development startup Nearthlab and head of product at agricultural platform GreenLabs.
"Introducing Korea's first AI Partner at a VC firm demonstrates how serious Mashup Ventures is about the AI industry," CEO Lee Taek-kyung said.
