Sungkwon Kang first started working at LG more than a decade ago in the South Korean corporate’s chemical subsidiary, LG Chem. He then spent two years as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group, before returning to the fold as an investment director at LG, eventually joining the CVC in early 2021.
Advances in the healthcare and biopharma space, especially with the growth of generative artificial intelligence, is something Kang is keen to see evolve in the near term, as well as advances in chemical and battery technology.
“This is probably the best job I have ever had, so I am grateful for it and try to savour all of it,” says Kang.“You have got to be mentally tough,” he says to those just starting out in corporate VC, who tend to have closer relationships with limited partners that may be business units in the same corporates compared with financial VCs.
CVC professionals have to brace for not always moving forward with every promising prospect. That can sometimes be frustrating as an investor, but such is the nature of venture capital – you must always be looking out for the next opportunity. “Think of it as: even if we miss this, there are always going to be opportunities out there. It could even be a follow-on round with the same startup,” he says.
“Sungkwon has done a great job in closing deals in the past three years and has grown into a strong investment professional. He is definitely a rising star,” says Anshul Agarwal, managing director at LG Technology Ventures.“He is the primary person to coordinate with a couple of our LPs, meaning they are his responsibility in terms of engaging with executives and stakeholders from those large companies,” says Agarwal.
Kang holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and computational mathematics from Virginia Tech and has a PhD in biomedical engineering from Cornell University.