KakaoVentures announced Tuesday that it has established a "Growth Team" to support the growth of its family companies (portfolio companies) and has recruited Kim Hyung-jin, formerly of Toss, and Choi Won-hyuk, formerly of Toss Securities and Sendbird Korea, as partners dedicated to human resources (HR) support.
Together with the two partners, KakaoVentures plans to strengthen the HR capabilities of its family companies, ranging from recruitment to building organizational culture. For family companies that need to hire key talent, the firm will directly identify and connect candidates suited to each growth stage, while for those that need to build or refine their organizational culture, it will help establish operational systems including evaluation, compensation, onboarding, and training.
In addition, the firm plans to diagnose and address challenges faced by family companies through regular sessions when broader HR support is needed.
Partner Kim Hyung-jin began his career at the Asan Nanum Foundation's startup team, supporting the growth of early-stage startups. He later served as Toss's first Culture Evangelist. After working as an HR Business Partner at Toss Securities, he founded Inside Answer, a firm specializing in HR strategy and organizational culture consulting.
Partner Choi Won-hyuk also began his career at the Asan Nanum Foundation's startup team and subsequently built his career at domestic and international tech companies including Kakao Pay, Toss Securities, and Sendbird Korea. He currently leads talent acquisition at Inside Answer alongside Partner Kim.
Through the establishment of the Growth Team, KakaoVentures will begin by supporting recruitment and organizational culture, the areas where early-stage startups face the greatest difficulties, and plans to continuously expand its support areas to include development and corporate AI transformation (AX).
"The launch of the Growth Team is a declaration that KakaoVentures will go beyond being a purely financial investor and become an execution partner that jumps directly into the growth process of our family companies," said Kim Ji-woong, director at KakaoVentures. "We will work together to build sustainable growth by breaking through, one by one, the areas where our family companies face challenges."
