LB Investment
LB Investment is a Seoul-based venture capital and growth-equity firm founded in 1996 as LG Venture Investment. It backs technology companies across ICT, deep tech, healthcare, and consumer in Korea and Greater China, and within roughly $1.1 billion under management has made a focused set of water bets. As of 2026 it has backed 2 water companies across 3 deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
LB Investment is about as close to old money as Korean venture capital gets. It began in 1996 as LG Venture Investment, the in-house venture arm of the LG conglomerate, before the founding Koo family carried it into the independent LB Holdings group it sits under today. Three decades on it manages roughly $1.1 billion and trades on Korea's KOSDAQ exchange, which makes it a rare thing in venture capital: a fund whose shares you can actually buy.
LB Investment is a generalist, not a water fund, and the honest version of this page says so. Its bread and butter is Korean and Greater-China technology: semiconductors, ICT, deep tech, healthcare, and the content and consumer names riding Korea's cultural exports. Water surfaces as a thin but deliberate slice of that deep-tech appetite, not a thesis the firm puts on its front page.
What the two water bets share is a hard-science Korean pedigree. The.Wave.Talk, a spin-out of the KAIST research university, fires a laser at water and reads the scattered light to count bacteria in seconds, where a lab culture takes days, and it won a CES 2025 innovation award for the trick. ECORENEW, the newer Seed bet, builds nano-filters that pull emulsified oil out of industrial wastewater that ordinary separators leave behind. Sensing and separation, both engineering-led, both homegrown.
For a newcomer to water, LB Investment is worth watching less as a category specialist and more as a read on where Korea's industrial-tech money is willing to wander. When a $1.1 billion generalist writes Seed and Series B cheques into water sensing and filtration, it is a quiet vote that the category has graduated from grant-funded science into fundable business, and LB has both the patience and the balance sheet to wait for the payoff.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does LB Investment invest in?
- LB Investment is a generalist Korean venture and growth-equity firm. It backs technology companies across ICT, deep tech, semiconductors, healthcare, and content and consumer, mostly in Korea and Greater China. Water is a small slice: 2 water companies across 3 deals, from Seed to Series B, as of 2026.
- Where is LB Investment based?
- LB Investment is headquartered in Seoul, in the Gangnam business district, and has run a Shanghai office since 2007 to cover Greater China. Founded in 1996, it is one of Korea's oldest venture firms, is listed on the KOSDAQ exchange, and manages roughly $1.1 billion.
- Who runs LB Investment?
- LB Investment is led by chief executive Kiho Park, with Bonchun Koo as executive vice chairman and Keun Young Ahn as chief investment officer. The firm employs around 30 people, including a dedicated Global Division that handles cross-border deals across Southeast Asia, India, and Greater China.
- Does LB Investment invest in water?
- LB Investment is not a water specialist, but it has made a focused set of water bets. It backed The.Wave.Talk, a KAIST spin-out whose laser sensor counts bacteria in water in seconds, and ECORENEW, which builds nano-filters that separate oil from industrial wastewater. (don't) Waste Water rates its commitment Committed.
- Is LB Investment the same as LG?
- LB Investment began in 1996 as LG Venture Investment, the venture arm of Korea's LG Group, but it is now independent, sitting under the LB Holdings group run by members of the founding Koo family. It is a separate company from LG and from similarly named LB firms abroad.