#03: Altos’ Han on How Korea Produced Coupang, Woowa Brothers, and Other Unicorn Startups

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia broadly.

In this episode, we chat with Han Kim, the Managing Director and a co-founder of Altos Ventures. Altos Ventures was founded in 1996 with a $30M fund, and now manages more than $10B. Notable investments include Coupang, Woowa Brothers, Roblox and Toss. Coupang, a Korean e-commerce startup, was valued at over $100B at IPO last year.

In this episode we discuss:

• What it was like to invest in Coupang more than 10 years ago, and the evolution of the Korean startup ecosystem.
• What are the similarities between the Korean and Japanese startup ecosystems and societies?
• How Altos Ventures invested in Japanese startups Kyash and Soda.
• Advice to entrepreneurs in Japan.

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