Simon Seojoon Kim is the CEO and Managing Partner of Hashed, a team of blockchain experts and builders based in Seoul and Silicon Valley. He is also the leading blockchain thought leader and evangelist in South Korea and is working with dominant IT companies like Line, Kakao, Spoqa, and Watcha to help them launch their blockchain initiatives.
Before Hashed, Simon co-founded an ed-tech startup Knowre in the US and Korea where he served as the Chief Product Officer. Apart from this, he serves as a member of the 4th Revolution Committee of the South Korean Parliament and also sits as a Director of the Korean Blockchain Association and is a member of the Committee for the Busan Blockchain Free Zone.
The early life of Simon Seojoon Kim
As for his education, Simon Seojoon Kim from Seoul Science High School went to study Computer Science and Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology from 2002 to 2007. His career life started in 2009 as a Software Engineer and Product Manager at Webcash. Later, he served as a Product Manager at Mozzet in 2011, and 2012.
Then He became the co-founder and chief product manager at Knowre, an education technology company that developed adaptive learning applications for self-paced student learning. Then in March 2018, Simon started as a Venture Partner at SoftBank Ventures Asia and served as a strategic advisor for global distributed ledger technology projects.
The Visionary Behind Hashed’s Blockchain Investments
Simon Seojoon Kim became the CEO and managing partner of Hashed in September 2017. Hashed is an investment venture fund that aims to discover, invest, and support innovative decentralization projects. Unlike other ventures, their approach is different as their investments are from a startup perspective that seeks to provide strategic support for the growth of these projects, rather than simply assessing their financial value.
Also, in December 2021, Hashed raised $200 million for a fund to support the growth of the Web3 ecosystem. The Hashed team believes that decentralization and the protocol economy are likely to be the next historically big wave of change. This is why they are devoted to discovering, investing in, and supporting decentralization projects. The goal of Hashed is to empower networks and innovators in building a decentralized future.
Simon’s take on blockchain
Simon Seojoon Kim is a renowned serial entrepreneur with multiple exits and a venture partner at Softbank Ventures Asia. He is also a leading blockchain evangelist and the CEO of Hashed, which is Korea’s prominent blockchain venture firm. This should give a clear picture of his interest in blockchain technology. Simon has given an open speech at the Korean Blockchain Week 2019 that Hashed invests predominantly in early-stage companies, focusing on South Korean startups.
However, the firm also provides backing to companies in Japan, China, and the USA. Simon strongly believes that more than firms themselves, one should be more focused on the hands-on approach that the firm takes to invest in startups. This approach has been successful not just in financial terms but also in blockchain adoption.
