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Cross - border trading normally occurs in fintech , where company transmit money to another land . However , David Yi and Simon Shin are out to apply that concept to the world of speculation Washington .
Yi and Shin startedEthos Fundtwo years ago to bridge chance and startup communities between Vietnam and the United States . Yi says the five - person firm is one of the few , if not the only , funds focused alone on strengthening opportunities between these two countries .
They shut on an first investment trust with $ 12 million in capital commitments from a grouping of modified collaborator , admit Elite Education Group , i - Scream Edu , Orion ’s Bridge Capital , Strong Ventures and father from Altos Ventures , Hashed , Tapas Media , JLin LLC and Meridianlink .
Yi and Shin are working with companionship in two ways : in the U.S. to enthrone in what they call “ third polish founder , ” which they define as “ brilliant mind who do n’t just belong to to one culture but have been shape by multiple single , ” solving problems they manage about .
The other is in Vietnam to invest at a very early - stage layer : pre - product and pre - revenue . They are also invest smaller check into third finish founders there who come into such categories as returned Vietnamese diaspora , Vietnamese Americans and expats residing in Vietnam , and afterward repeat down with larger checks into validated startup .
“ Ethos is promise Ethos because we focus on the ethos of the founders , ” Yi said . “ For us , it ’s very important that the founder are more than doing cross - cultural things . Their third culture means they have their own third singular culture that they ’ve built throughout their life and that goes beyond skin color or geography . ”
Yi and Shin , both Korean American , met in 2020 when Yi was CEO of Riiid Labs , an AI for teaching company . Their origins are rather unequalled : Shin previously worked at different engineering companies , including Chegg , primarily in merchandise management in Los Angeles . He move to Korea in 2014 to run a startup called Hellocafe before joining VC steady Bluepoint Partners .
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Meanwhile , Yi ’s started his career as a instructor for the Peace Corps in China . That led to him starting his own education technology company . That eventually turned into eight companies , two of which exited , many in the Irvine , California , area , including EduGroup . He later had a stint with Lyceum Partners before moving to Southeast Asia to work at ACT and K12 , among others .
One of the things Yi find about his inauguration was that they were n’t growing past a sure stage .
“ I thought peradventure it ’s because I do n’t know how to manage people well , ” Yi told TechCrunch . “ I was also like , why is my receipts not going past a certain point ? It ’s because I did n’t know how to crack the computer code to be the one that buzz off the enceinte company . ”
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But there are always new things to learn , and in this particular instance , Yi learned two thing : He indeed did n’t know how to manage the great unwashed professionally , and the technology could n’t scale unless they got to business - to - business . Now the distich need to help startup founders work out those lesson out early .
“ When you ’re a startup CEO , you ’re read on the go , ” Yi said . “ I had different personalities , and I did not know what I did n’t lie with . I was capable to discover from going to a big company to understand their infrastructures . Then you may filter what is applicable to startup or not . ”
wiretap into their edtech ground , Yi and Shin also believe that venture capital is education , so they host live broadcast and events . Those let in the New Venture Challenge , also known as “ founder on a carpenter’s plane , ” and Saigon Fest , which shuttle entrepreneurs and investor between Vietnam and the U.S. to learn from one another .
The pair have made nine investments so far , Shin said . One announced recently — and with in effect timing — was Oyl , which is building a digital wallet for a Bitcoin economy . Last week , Bitcoin hit an all - time high . Ethos has also invested in company like up - skilling platform Skola , AI - enabled marketing company Needle andMirrorscape , which is modernise a practical tabletop creature for gambling .
Have a juicy tip or head about natural event in the startup and venture humanity ? broadcast tips to Christine Hall at chall.techcrunch@gmail.com or via thisSignal nexus . Anonymity requests will be observe .
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