PIO Investment

Jonghyuk Lee, the firm's CEO and Managing Partner, leads the investment committee. Lee brings over 15 years of institutional venture experience, previously holding investment roles at SoftBank Ventures Korea and KTB Network. The partnership group operates with a consensus-driven approval process on new deals.

PIO Investment focuses primarily on seed, Series A, and Series B rounds. The firm occasionally participates in pre-seed rounds for founders with deep institutional track records. The partnership has publicly stated a preference for leading or co-leading rounds between $500,000 and $3 million at initial entry.

PIO Investment has not publicly declared any prohibited sectors, but the firm's historical deal activity shows no exposure to controversial weapons, adult entertainment, or gambling. The partnership's primary hard-avoidance criterion is capital intensity: the firm rarely backs hardware-heavy or asset-owning startups that require large upfront capex before proving unit economics.

Yes. PIO reserves a meaningful portion of each fund for pro-rata follow-ons through Series B. The firm views follow-on capacity as a core retention mechanism for top-performing founders in its early-stage portfolio. This practice was demonstrated in the firm's continued support of Riiid through multiple funding rounds.

Jonghyuk Lee's network from SoftBank Ventures Korea and KTB Network remains the primary sourcing channel. The firm also maintains structured relationships with KAIST and POSTECH, Korea's leading technical research universities, to identify spinout companies. Co-investment syndicates with Kakao Ventures and Mirae Asset Capital provide additional curated deal flow.

Korea is the core market, representing the majority of deployed capital. The firm has selectively invested in Southeast Asia, with confirmed activity in Vietnam and Indonesia. PIO Investment does not currently target North American or European companies, preferring to stay within timezone-aligned ecosystems where the partnership can add operational value.

Yes. PIO Investment operates as a registered venture capital firm under Korean Financial Services Commission regulations. The firm manages pooled venture funds raised from Korean institutional LPs including pension funds and financial holding companies, per Korean regulatory filings.