Designed to foster innovation and entrepreneurism among Asian companies, Innovation Korea provided startups with the exposure, resources and knowledge necessary to confidently expand their business endeavors globally.
The event included a pitch competition, where 12 Korean startups presented their ideas to a host of internationally based judges. The panel of judges also discussed the state of economic development between Korea and the U.S., as well as Venture Capital considerations and resources. The judges included notable experts in all things technology and venture capital. Get to know them below.
Meet our outstanding judges!
Jeanna has over a decade of investment banking experience from UBS, Evercore, CITICS, and Arma Partners, with a focus on cross-border M&A in the TMT sector. As Managing Director at CDX Advisors, she provides mergers and acquisitions and capital raising advisory to public companies and high-growth start-ups. She has advised over $15 billion of M&A and capital markets transactions throughout North America, Europe, and APAC. Jeanna holds a B.S. in Economics from MIT, where she held technical roles at the MIT Media Lab and the Mayo Medical School Cancer Department. She is an angel investor in technology/media and sometimes moonlights as a web developer. She also speaks fluent Mandarin.
Chris is the CEO and Co-Founder of The Rattle, a ‘joining of worlds’ between music culture and startup culture. Chris’ professional goal is to tear down old school gatekeepers that prevent the weird and wonderful from impacting our everyday lives. Having been a researching physicist and psychologist, alongside an aspiring ‘spy’ and medical nerd, Chris found his feet when starting his first technology company out of MIT in 2009. Since then, his passions lie in helping nerds, artists, and food entrepreneurs who don’t look the same, smell the same or think the same behave like disruptive founders and hackers of the future. The techniques Chris values above all others is that of ‘venture building’, turning changes of behavior into powerful movements or startups.
Known throughout the entertainment & technology industries as “part connector/part evangelist/always a futurist,” Ted is currently the Head of Corporate Development for Mediatech.Ventures. He previously served as SVP-Digital for EMI Music, where he was instrumental in crafting the licensing agreements upon which the iTunes Store and Rhapsody/Napster services were built.
A 40 year entertainment and digital media industry veteran, Ted conceived, created & chaired MidemNet, and also served on the Grammy LA Board of Governors & Grammy National Trustee Board. Additionally, he served as Chairman of Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas, and sat on the board of Mouse.org. In 2013, Ted received the NARM Presidential Award, previously awarded to Ahmet Ertegun & Dick Clark, among others. Ted continually looks for the next innovative technology as well as his next challenge. He really loves his life!
Elijah is a partner at LVLON Ventures. Prior to LVLON, he was Entrepreneur in Residence at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Digital Ventures, the founder and CEO at Kageh Inc. and FATE Lab. He brings substantial experience in the digital media and technology industries, helping to deploy new technologies for large media companies.
He was the youngest executive team member at Universal Music Group -eLabs (now UMG- Global Digital Business), which led to his involvement with the launch of VEVO where he sourced and negotiated the YouTube deal critical to the popular dedicated music channel’s success. His experience includes the strategic development of products, distribution, and advanced commerce technologies. His strives to build new and innovative consumer digital media applications and platforms that fundamentally disrupt the tech, media and fashion industries.
Joe is co-chair of McCarter’s Venture Capital & Emerging Growth Companies practice. He represents startup and publicly held technology, life science, and consumer companies as well as venture capital funds, private equity funds, and investment banks in a wide range of seed and venture financings, mergers and acquisitions, IPOs, and other public offerings. He regularly advises a broad range of startups, venture-backed companies, and venture capital funds and has led hundreds of venture and strategic financing transactions.
Joe has helped companies and private equity firms handle dozens of merger, acquisition, and disposition transactions. Additionally, he has represented issuers and underwriters in scores of IPOs and follow-on public offerings involving companies in the technology, life sciences, and consumer sectors, including leading investment banks such as Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and Oppenheimer. Joe also serves as outside general counsel for numerous companies, assisting them with everything from day-to-day business transactions to multinational strategic alliance transactions, such as technology and distribution partnerships and joint ventures.
Diana is a tech professional at the crossroads of data, storytelling, and analysis. In her current Ventures position at Dell Technologies Capital, she works with a stellar investment team to deploy $150M annually into early-stage B2B enterprise tech, focusing on AI, Big Data, IoT, Cyber-security, Cloud infrastructure, Edge computing, DevOps.
As a founder-driven company, Dell Technologies embraces innovation and entrepreneurship. Dell’s Ventures team invests in early-stage companies, providing deep domain expertise, crucial business guidance and access to the power of the Dell Technologies brand and channel.
Michael has over 20 years’ of venture capital and operating experience, with an emphasis on Deep Tech and information technology industry sectors. Prior to his role as Managing Director at LG Technology Ventures, he was a Managing Partner of Bandgap Ventures, which focuses on physical science technology investing in the areas of advanced materials, manufacturing, and electronics. Michael began his work in venture capital at Alara Capital (formerly Guggenheim Venture Partners), which was the venture capital group of Guggenheim Partners, a global financial services firm with more than $200 billion in assets under management.
Michael has held senior positions in operating companies including Director of Marketing and Business Development at Molecular Imprints, a venture-backed semiconductor equipment company that was acquired by Canon. He also served as a Captain at the US Air Force Research Laboratory, where he led a multi-million dollar semiconductor laser research and development program at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Michael has also worked at Texas Instruments and Teradyne Corporation and has authored multiple technical publications. He has four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, an M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he was a Leaders for Global Operations Fellow and a recipient of the Patrick G. McGovern Award for Entrepreneurship.
To our rockstar judges, the MediaTech Ventures family cannot thank you enough for participating in this event.
Your time and commitment have not gone unnoticed and you serve as an invaluable asset in the MediaTech Ventures community. We know how busy you are, and we are extremely grateful that you took the time to listen, enlighten, and inspire. Many of the startups have expressed appreciation for your presentation and the feedback you offered. They are already looking at ways to implement your suggestions.
Get to know 12 innovative Korean startups and find out whose pitch won!
Want more? Join the MediaTech.Ventures community!
