The Venture Codex

Participated · Series A · Mar 2022

Dongnae operates a managed-premium apartment rental service that offers products such as Dongnae FLEX, which lowers typical renter deposits by about 98%, and Dongnae PLUS, which bundles home services and rentals. The platform provides fully online experiences including Matterport-powered 3D virtual tours and e-contract lease signing. Dongnae manages more than 60 top apartment complexes in Seoul and Pangyo and works with over 80 official local brokerage partners; its team has grown to about 40 employees and more than 80% of users are local Koreans, mostly young professionals. The company was founded in 2020 and aims to expand across the Seoul metropolitan area, deepen brokerage relationships, and invest in technology and proprietary data tools. With the latest round, Dongnae plans to launch iOS and Android apps and a home services marketplace within the year. The firm claims the offering also appeals to foreign executives and diplomats by lowering cross-border deposit barriers and supports resident management in Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese. As of this fundraise Dongnae has raised approximately $34 million (40 billion KRW) in total funding. Dongnae builds a centralized marketplace that digitizes rental and home‑buying listings in South Korea by partnering with thousands of local brokers. The product focuses on the buyer/renter side, offering a Tinder‑like swipe interface and detailed digital inventories for each complex (4K photos, watermarks) that are also shared with brokers. Dongnae aims to function as Korea’s first true MLS, reducing the need for in‑person browsing across fragmented brokerages. The company charges a buyer‑side fee (around 0.8% in Korea) as its primary revenue model. Dongnae’s team is about 25 people with roughly 50/50 gender diversity. The company was founded by Matthew Shampine, who previously ran WeWork’s Asia arm and launched Dongnae to address Korea’s fragmented real estate market.

Led · Series A · Jun 2021

GXC operates G.Round, a community-based tool that helps development studios refine and polish upcoming video games using market-data feedback. Since its July 2020 release, about 235,000 gamers in more than 240 regions have actively used G.Round. GXC also runs the GTR accelerator, which selects ten gaming startups worldwide each year and has invested in more than 55 game companies across numerous countries. Led by Rick Nahm, the company functions as a tech-based holding company for its game service platform and accelerator. The company plans to use recent funds to expand G.Round’s offerings—including mobile optimization, personalization, crowdfunding, and data services—and to grow GTR’s investment in the game content business. Financially, the company announced an additional $9.1M in Series A funding following a $4.73M Series A disclosed in April 2021. GXC is a Jeju, Korea–based holding company of game service platform G.Round, which offers a community-based tool to help studios refine upcoming video games using market-data feedback. G.Round launched an alpha in July 2020 and has attracted more than 150,000 gamers across 240 countries, with 90 projects tested globally. The company plans to use new funding to expand global game testing into the mobile sector by launching a G.Round mobile service by the end of the year. GXC also intends to provide a data subscription service to publishers next year by advancing its online data analysis system for user and region preferences. The firm has secured partnerships with 40 global publishers and operates the Global Top Round (GTR) accelerator, which selects ten gaming startups annually and has invested in more than 50 game companies across multiple countries. Financially, GXC reported a Series A equity raise and prior funding that together support its approximately $36M valuation.