[In-Depth Look at Listed VCs] ④ Capstone Partners: Not Just 'Unicorn Riders,' but True Partners

Consistent Early-Stage Investment and Collaboration with Danggeun, Zigbang, and Others
Pursuing 'New Collar' Investments Beyond White and Blue Collar
Rising Expectations for Returns from AI Companies like Ruitten and DeepX

Editor's NoteEditor's Note = The Lee Jaemyung administration has demonstrated a strong commitment to fostering the venture sector. Major deregulation and budget expansion are anticipated. Venture capital (VC) firms are drawing attention, as they are expected to play a pivotal role in the future development of the venture ecosystem. In particular, listed VCs are in the spotlight. These listed VCs attracted significant investor interest in 2021, when the venture budget surged, and their stock prices reached all-time highs. In response, Asia Economy is publishing a series that offers an in-depth analysis of the strengths and core investment portfolios of major listed VCs.

Each venture capital (VC) firm emphasizes its investments in "unicorns" (unlisted startups with a corporate value of over 1 trillion KRW). Capstone Partners has also invested in several unicorns, including Danggeun, Zigbang, and Kurly. What sets Capstone Partners apart is not just the number of unicorns, but the fact that it has been deeply involved from the early stages of these companies' development and has grown alongside them.

Specializing in Early-Stage Investment, Sustained Partnerships Thereafter

Capstone Partners is a VC that invests 70-80% of its capital in startups within three years of founding. It accompanied companies such as Danggeun Market, Kurly, VCNC (Tada), and Sendbird from the seed or Series A investment stages. Rather than simply "jumping on the unicorn bandwagon," Capstone Partners supported both founders and products as partners from their incomplete beginnings. The firm provided spaces for entrepreneurs in collaboration with startup incubators such as Maru180 and Asan Nanum Foundation. Capstone Partners also covered the costs of services that early-stage companies often struggle with, such as public relations, recruitment, and legal support.

Song Eunkang, CEO of Capstone Partners, believes that early-stage investment is the very reason for a VC's existence. Rather than focusing on short-term returns, he aims to create a sustainable startup ecosystem through long-term partnerships and reinvestment. The motto is that the future of the Korean economy is healthy if VCs?and Capstone Partners in particular?are healthy.

In fact, Capstone Partners invested in Danggeun, a region-based online secondhand marketplace, in 2016. At that time, Danggeun Market had just started as "Pangyo Market" in 2015 and had a corporate value of 8 billion KRW, when Capstone Partners made a 500 million KRW Series A investment. Back then, Danggeun was a company with 10 employees, before it had grown nationwide. Capstone Partners provided active mentoring and consulting, working together on leadership, organizational management, and service strategy. The firm continued to provide follow-up investments in Series B, C, and D rounds, bringing the total investment to 17.4 billion KRW. The journey of growing together was challenging, but the rewards were sweet. When Capstone Partners partially exited its investment in Danggeun in 2023, it realized a return of 247 times its original investment.

Capstone Partners also invested in DeepX, a company designing edge artificial intelligence (AI) chips, from the seed stage in February 2020. It continued to invest in three consecutive rounds, including Series A and B. In the Series C round last year, Capstone Partners sold existing shares to Skylake and others, achieving an investment return of 13 times. The firm also participated as an investor in every round of Zigbang, a real estate transaction platform, starting from Series A, during which the company's valuation increased more than 300-fold.

'New Collar' Investments That Focus on Both the Future and People

Song Eunkang, CEO of Capstone Partners, is being interviewed by Asia Economy. 2025.03.04 Photo by Yoon Dongju

Capstone Partners focuses on "new collar" entrepreneurs. "New collar" is a term that CEO Song has used for the past 10 years, referring to those who seek out roles for humans in an era where machines, regardless of blue-collar or white-collar distinctions, are replacing human labor in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Song emphasizes that new collar entrepreneurs should possess digital literacy, a vision for how technology will shape the future, the ability to adapt independently, a desire to change the world, and the ability to collaborate with others.

One of the firm's recent investments, Ruitten Technology (Ruitten), is a new "new collar" selected by Capstone Partners. The company provides AI-based search, image generation, and summarization of documents and YouTube videos. It has also launched a feature that helps users find the most suitable AI models. Previously, users had to search for various AI models themselves. Just one year and ten months after launching its service, Ruitten surpassed 5 million monthly active users (MAU) in October last year. The company aims to surpass 10 million users this year.

Rebounding Performance... Awaiting Major Fund Exits This Year

Capstone Partners' performance has recently hit bottom and is now rebounding. In 2022, the firm recorded an operating profit of 7.1 billion KRW and a net profit of 6.1 billion KRW, achieving a return on equity (ROE) of 34%. However, in 2023, operating losses surged to 2.4 billion KRW. This was due to a downturn in the venture investment market and, most notably, to valuation losses stemming from a sharp decline in the performance of Fabless (semiconductor design) company Padu, in which Capstone Partners had invested.

However, the firm recovered last year, recording a profit of 2.2 billion KRW. It was one of five listed VCs whose performance improved year-on-year. This was due to equity method gains, as portfolio companies such as Ably, Gopizza, and SamzzumSam attracted follow-up investments.

This year, expectations for performance growth are rising due to an increase in performance-based compensation. A total of five funds are awaiting liquidation: Hana-KDBC Capstone Venture Investment Association, Hana Capital-Capstone Venture Investment Association, Hana Capital-Capstone Venture Investment Association No. 2, Capstone No. 4 Growth Ladder Investment Association, and 2014 KIF-Capstone Second Challenge IT Investment Association. In the case of Ruitten and DeepX, additional investments are also expected as the AI market expands.