Jacob Kim

Ji-ung Kim, who also uses the English name Jacob, is an investment professional at Kakao Ventures. The firm’s English team page lists him as a Principal Associate and tags his focus as “GameGeek” and “Content.” His Korean firm and blog profiles describe him as an investment director focused on games and, more recently, AI x entertainment.

Before Kakao Ventures, Kim worked in the Korean games and content ecosystem. Kakao Ventures lists his career history as Junior Consultant at Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) from 2009 to 2010, Strategy Manager at NCSOFT from 2010 to 2014, and Project Manager at 4:33 Creative Lab from 2014 to 2016. He joined Kakao Ventures in 2016 as Investment Team Leader and has been listed as Senior Team Leader from 2019 onward.

Kim studied Economics and Trade at Beijing Language and Culture University. His firm profile emphasizes his practical experience across developers, publishers, Korea, and China, and says he is particularly interested in next-generation cultural content.

At Kakao Ventures, Kim is one of the firm’s sector specialists in games. He has written frequently on game investing, subculture games, hyper-casual games, game metrics, AI in game development, and the broader attention economy.

• Focuses on global game startups and next-generation cultural content; his firm profile states: “I strongly support global game startups.”
• Looks for game teams that can endure the long and uncertain path to launch. In his January 2026 interview on game startup metrics, he said he evaluates whether a team has the capacity and execution ability to bring a product to market and keep operating through uncertainty.
• Uses retention, LTV, and CAC as core game-business metrics, with retention as the first signal because it indicates whether users stay long enough for marketing and monetization to work.
• For very early teams without metrics, he says founders do not need to force numbers. He instead looks for past track record, launch/live-ops experience, data-driven decision-making, and a team culture where data can override seniority or instinct.
• In subculture games, he is interested in strong fandom, global user pools, and “come-to-us” branding rather than pure paid user acquisition.
• In AI x entertainment, he is expanding from game investing into the broader attention economy, particularly real-time and relational products such as AI companions, AI VTubers, virtual IP, live tools, and services where people spend recurring time.
• Kakao Ventures’ broader philosophy is to find the “one reason” a startup can succeed, rather than requiring every part of the company to be complete at seed stage.