Jeongheon KIM

Mr Jeongheon Kim is the co-founder and CEO of Underdogs, a prominent social innovation startup incubator based in Seoul, Korea. He is also the founder and CEO of New Black, an impact startup builder and a holding company of Underdogs and three other companies. As the leader of these two companies, he accelerates and invests in social innovation startups, supporting his mission of nurturing sustainable social enterprises to create a more sustainable, diverse and large-scale social impact.

After graduating from a business school of Sogang University in Korea, he started his career as a banker then worked for Arthur D. Little, a consulting company. He jumped into the social economy sector in 2013 by joining a social venture called Delight Hearing-Aid as the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). After one year in Delight, he continued his career as a social entrepreneur by co-founding Woozoo, the very first share-house franchising company in Korea. Both businesses are still very active in the market, leading the social enterprise sector in Korea as two of the few successful and sustainable social business models.

Through these experiences he realised that a content-based training with a systematic step-by-step approach is crucial for social innovation startups. He founded Underdogs in 2015 to develop the most effective programme for all potential entrepreneurs and teams. Since then the Underdogs’ crews have trained more than 5,000 entrepreneurs and continues to lead number of projects to foster social innovation startup ecosystem.

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