Jung-hee Ryu: Venture Capitalist and Startup Incubator

Jung-hee Ryu holds a Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. from KAIST. He is the founder and currently serves as the CEO of FuturePlay, a leading startup accelerator and venture capital firm. In the early 2000s, at the age of 25, he co-founded IconLab and served as its CEO, developing technology that automatically bridges offline contexts into online environments. In 2006, after leading IconLab for over four years, he stepped down to found Olaworks, a company specializing in computer vision and facial recognition technology.

In 2012, Olaworks was acquired by Intel for approximately 35 billion KRW, after which Ryu joined Intel as a Vice President (Sang-mu). Subsequently, in 2014, he founded FuturePlay, a startup incubator and venture capital firm. Since then, he has served as its CEO and has invested in over 100 startups in diverse sectors, including prop-tech, autonomous driving, and artificial intelligence (AI).

As a successful serial entrepreneur, Ryu also founded RealWorld in July 2024. RealWorld provides physical AI models for the manufacturing, 3D printing, and robotics sectors. In less than a year since its inception, the company has already secured 21 billion KRW in investment.