Altos Ventures is a first-stage venture capital firm. The firm has been the first and lead investor in over 50 high-growth technology companies. More than a dozen of these companies were incubated by Altos and started from scratch.
Altos Ventures competes with Alloy Ventures, Accel, and Sequoia Capital.
Altos Ventures specializes in making direct and fund of fund investments. It makes venture capital investments in seed/startup, early venture, mid venture, and late venture companies.
Altos Ventures was founded in 1996 by Han Kim and Ho Nam and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California with an additional office in Seoul, South Korea. Altos has been investing in cloud-based business software companies since 1999.
Altos Ventures invests in fast-growing software, mobile, and Internet companies at the initial scale, typically over $1 million in revenue. The firm invests actively across North America and has a dedicated fund focused on South Korean companies. Altos aims to provide a company's first institutional capital and will invest up to $10 million over the life of the company. Its typical initial investment ranges between $1-5 million, for which they seek a meaningful ownership stake.
They make venture growth investments in enterprise and consumer software companies, with particular expertise in SaaS and consumer mobile. They prefer to be the first institutional investor in high-growth, founder-led companies.
They are investing from 2017 and 2018 vintage funds, one focused in North America and the other in Asia. Their active portfolio companies generate more than $7 billion dollars of annual revenue and they employ more than ten thousand people across a dozen countries.

Altos Ventures has had 16 exits. The firm's most notable exits include Piqora, Outspark, and OtherInbox. The firm has raised a total of $324.9M across 6 funds, one of them being Altos Ventures Korea Opportunity Fund II. This fund was announced on Mar 16, 2016, and raised a total of $110M.
The company invests in venture capital funds and commercial printing, diversified support services, educational curriculum development, environmental and facilities services, outsourced client support and customer services, video equipment, internet advertising, digital television, music services, online hobbies, games and toy retail, online music retail, search engine software, e-commerce software, network management software, content management software, online bill payment services, online education courses, online supply chain management, services outsourcing, networking services, video software, financial software, internet marketing automation software, payment and pos processing software, supply chain management software, systems software, educational and training software, telephone equipment, mobile telephones, mobile messaging, outsourced technology manufacturing services, digital, two-way mobile data services, security and alarm services, consumer digital lending, and commercial digital lending sectors.
Altos Ventures focuses on young technology companies and entrepreneurs. Altos invests in all sectors of the IT industry including software, services, digital media, and infrastructure. The firm can invest up to $10 million and has no minimum. Initial investments are typically $1 to 3 million. The firm prefers to own a meaningful minority stake, usually over 20%. Since 1996, Altos has formed six venture capital funds ranging in size from $50 million to $100 million.
They often provide a company’s first institutional capital and will invest up to $10 million over the life of the company. They typically take an active board role in helping founders to scale their teams and companies. They are especially active in the early years of the partnership with founders.
Timeline
$110M
$60M
$86M
$68.9M
—
—
Funded Companies
Symantec is a Mountain View, California-based cybersecurity company providing security, storage, and systems management solutions for consumers and enterprises.
Roblox provides an online entertainment platform that allows users to build and play games and share them with others.
An education technology company that has created a platform where students can create review games for the content which they are studying It was founded in 2007 and is located in San Francisco, California.
A consumer company providing customers with the latest in Asian beauty products, culture and trends.
Also known as Viva Republica, Toss provides a peer-to-peer mobile payments platform in Korea.
WhiteHat Security is a San Jose, California-based company founded by Jeremiah Grossman.
TVU Networks is a Mountain View, California-based company.
Koofers is a Blacksburg-based company founded by Michael Rihani, Glynn LoPresti, Patrick Gartlan and Dan Donahoe.
SpyCloud offers early warning solutions to businesses to prevent compromises on employee and customer account.
Self Lender is a credit builder that aims to help users build credit and save money.
Outdoorsy is an Austin, Texas-based company founded by Jennifer Young, Jeff Cavins and Ryan Quinn.
PandaDoc is a San Francisco-based provider of document collaboration software.
A company developing a data science platform for commercial underwriting.
Pandora TV is a Seoul-based gaming company founded in 2004 by Michael Hong.
Associated investment funds
People
Anthony Lee
Employee
Anthony P. Lee
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Ashley Pearson
OPERATIONS
Faraneh Kazerouni
FINANCE
Han J. Kim
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Hee-Eun (Baki) Park
PRINCIPAL
Heeeun Park
Employee
Ho Nam
Employee
Hodong (Ho) Nam
MANAGING DIRECTOR
Inkyoung Park
FINANCE
Jeff Truong
SENIOR ASSOCIATE
Jiyun Cho
FINANCE
Kate Fry
FINANCE
Moon-Suk Oh
PRINCIPAL
Rick Arnold
GENERAL COUNSEL
Tony Di Bona
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Further reading
'Roblox' Raises $150 Million in Funding, Is Now Reportedly Worth $2.5 Billion
Stefanie Fogel
Web
Alto Ventures Ltd(3H8A) Annual Report (10K) Quarterly Report (10Q)
Web
Altos Ventures leads $7 mln funding in Bench - PE Hub
Chris Witkowsky
Web
Altos Ventures to invest 1.2 billion KRW in an online group study platform 'Studypie' - VentureSquare World
Web
Altos Ventures via Startup Compete
Web
Altos Ventures, Venture Capital Fund: Han Kim, Managing Director
Web
Altos Ventures, Venture Capital Fund: Ho Nam, General Partner & Co-founder
Web
Billeo Closes Series A Investment Led by Altos Ventures
Web
Fintech startup Self Lender lands $10 mln Series B - PE Hub
Iris Dorbian
Web
Heeeun Park (Altos Ventures)
Web
IAPD - Investment Adviser Firm Summary - ALTOS VENTURES MANAGEMENT, INC.
Web
Roblox Closes $150 Million Financing to Accelerate International Growth
Web
Roblox closes on $150 million Series F funding round
Web
U.S. Fintech Self Lender Secures $10 Million Through Series B Financing Round Led By Altos Ventures
Samantha Hurst
Web
What is the general consensus on Altos Ventures? - Quora
Web
Working at Altos Ventures
Web
Documentaries, videos and podcasts
#2. When Publishers meet Business model 미디어(퍼블리셔)가 비즈니스 모델을 만날 때 _ Bakki of Altos Ventures
Nov 16, 2014
303rd 1M/1M Roundtable April 21, 2016: With Ho Nam, Altos Ventures
Apr 22, 2016
303rd Roundtable Recording On April 21, 2016: With Ho Nam, Altos Ventures | Sramana Mitra
22 April 2016
Altos Ventures | SVOD - Silicon Valley Open Doors
8 January 2015
Meetup by Testlio: What Matters To The Investors in the US
Sep 8, 2016
Silicon Valley VC's Investing in Korea / Asia Panel - 2013 beGLOBAL in Silicon Valley
Oct 2, 2013
Silicon Valley VC's Investing in Korea/Asia Panel -- Why (ROI?) and how?
Sep 25, 2013
Startup Grind Seoul Hosts Hee-Eun Park (Altos Ventures)
Dec 20, 2014
Venture Capital panel @TheStartupConference 2015
May 30, 2015
Women in Tech: A Conversation with Altos Ventures' Hee-Eun Park
Feb 16, 2017
Companies
82 Labs
ADOP
Allocadia
Audrey Reefs
Bench
Bepr
Bespin Global
Bitfinder
Book Jam
Brightedge
Collab ASIA
Collective Retreats
Commontown
Creatable
Demand Base
digitalpath.net
Elice
EVR Studio
Funizen
HireMojo
HuiSeoul
HyperConnect