Widus Partners

Widus Partners is a cross-border financial advisory and investment firm with presence in Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, and San Francisco.

We leverage our unique cross-border deal making skills and global relationships with leading corporations, financial firms and investment banks to open up new markets and unrealized possibilities for our corporate clients.

Providing access to unique financial products and investment solutions for our financial clients.
Forward-thinking, independent, sophisticated advice.

Founded in 2010, Widus Partners was established to provide practical solutions and advice to start-ups and growth enterprises in Asia and the U.S.

We have since expanded our offerings to include M&A and Investment Advisory, Private Equity and Principal Investments, and blockchain-based Digital Assets Advisory services to support a diverse array of clients and partners. Because of our reputation for getting transformative deals done, our unwavering ambition to “connect-the-dots” across markets with state of the art solutions, and our focus on building our franchise around long-term relationships, we are quickly becoming one of the premier go-to “deal makers” in Asia and beyond.

What makes us unique is that we are led by seasoned, multi-faceted professionals who were previously corporate securities and M&A lawyers at elite international law firms, management consultants at McKinsey & Company, deal makers at leading investment banks, and public and private equity investors, having lived and worked in many of the key markets around the world, including London, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore, and now working together under one roof, Widus Partners.

We believe in the virtues of long-term relationships, finding and creating synergy, and executing transformative deals.

We aim to bridge the friction cost of collaborating, investing, financing, and doing control deals across borders in order to unleash the potential synergy value realizable from bringing the relative strengths and assets of differently situated buyers and sellers, investors and advisors, partners and collaborators, across markets.

Steve J. Byun

Hong Kong / Seoul

University 02

Steve is Managing Partner and Founding Member of Widus Partners. Steve has advised and invested in growth and venture stage companies in Korea, Hong Kong and the US since 2008. He also has experience working as a corporate lawyer specializing in private equity and M&A transactions at Ropes & Gray, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Kim & Chang in Hong Kong and Korea. Prior to founding Widus Partners, Steve also worked at KPMG in the Financial Advisory Services group in Seoul and San Francisco, advising on various cross-border investments. He holds a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law and an M.B.A. from Kellogg School of Management with concentration in finance and entrepreneurship. Steve holds a B.A. in political science from University of California, Berkeley.

Jack Wang

San Francisco

University 03

Jack is a Partner and Founding Member of Widus Partners. Jack is also the founder and CEO of a venture-backed cryptocurrency company with investors including Lightspeed China, Ceyuan Ventures, and Y Combinator. He previously developed a digital asset exchange, bitcoin wallet, and the world’s first decentralized gold-backed token, and is an occasional investor and advisor to startup companies. Jack previously practiced law at Gunderson Dettmer in Silicon Valley advising startups on technology and financing matters. Jack has a J.D. from the University of Chicago, and a M.S. and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Jason Park

Seoul

University 04

Jason is a Managing Director and the Co-Head of Principal Investments. Jason has research and investment experience in private and public equities throughout Asia and the US dating back to 2009. Most recently, Jason served as an Investment Director at BCM, a New York-based hedge fund, where he invested in public equities globally. He previously co-founded Latona Capital, a real estate-focused investment firm investing in Mongolia. Jason holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in finance with a specialization in entrepreneurship from NYU Stern School of Business.

David D. H. Lee

Singapore

University 05

David is a Director at Widus Partners Singapore. David primarily advises on token projects and ICOs, corporate and financial transactions on behalf of buyers, issuers and underwriters including cross-border M&A, debt/equity offerings and various other fundraising efforts and strategic investments. David has previously worked at leading global law firms including Latham & Watkins LLP and Sidley Austin LLP, where he had advised clients across the corporate and emerging tech sectors in the Asia Pacific, particularly in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Korea. David holds a J.D. from University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. from Emory University.

Founded in 2010, Widus Partners was established to provide practical solutions and advice to start-ups and growth enterprises in Asia and the U.S.

We believe in the virtues of long-term relationships, finding and creating synergy, and executing transformative deals.

Steve J. Byun

Hong Kong / Seoul

University 02

Jack Wang

San Francisco

University 03

Jason Park

Seoul

University 04

David D. H. Lee

Singapore

University 05

What We Do?

M&A Advisory

Our M&A and Investment Advisory practice is distinctive because of the depth of our ambition and the capabilities of our team.

We are guided by our conviction that enterprises need to work with counterparties across markets to fully realize their true potential. Our core team is comprised of leading international professionals with multi-jurisdictional work experience, world-class skill sets, and powerful and actionable global network. Our job is to help define the equity or the synergy story for management, secure the right counterparties, and execute transformative deals that deliver a lasting impact.

While we cover many industries, we have developed a particularly strong reputation, network and experience in e-commerce, retail and brands; web services and applications; cosmetics, healthcare and well-being solutions; media and entertainment; education, play and training; and technology and components.

Our advice and support are tailored to the particular needs of our clients:

Business Advice – We are, by training and inclination, consultants, lawyers, bankers and investors who are keen to get into the details of the business and translate that knowledge into execution paths. We get engaged by clients looking to us as thought partners, idea generators and problem solvers who can help define the strategic intent, prioritize key decisions, and prepare the client for a transformative event.

Transaction Advice – Our core competency resides in our ability to get deals done. Whether our mandate is M&A advisory, financing & investment advisory, or involves a deal with a commercial or business deal component, we are networked, skilled-up, experienced to deliver unparalleled transactional financial advice to our clients.

Post-Transaction Advice – Due to our inclination to forge long-term relationships with our clients, we tend to know our clients’ businesses profoundly well. As a result, even after we help facilitate a major transaction, we are frequently asked by our clients to help them realize the synergy potential of the deal, whether as a board member, advisor, or investor. We welcome the opportunity to work with our clients to ensure that the synergy potential from collaborating with counterparties is fully realized.

Digital Assets Advisory

We have unparalleled expertise and track record in a number of disruptive and landmark blockchain/digital assets projects, token offerings and other related matters. Serving as a trusted advisor, partner and alliance member, we align our interests with our clients to maximize the potential and scalability of their projects.

With the emergence of digital assets and blockchain as a new way of raising capital and executing projects for early startups, growth stage companies as well as established corporations, Widus Partners offers an unmatched suite of advisory services in such cutting edge sectors to support our clients and their portfolio companies.

Our team provides a comprehensive range of project management services catering to each of our client’s needs, including:

Business model and token economics development;
Corporate/regulatory structuring;
Digital assets / token project documentation review;
Market research;
Technology consulting;
Pre-token offering investments, marketing and investor relations;
Strategic partnerships and project community management;
Post-offering business strategy and proliferation; and
Exchange listing and liquidity solutions.

We understand that each company will have a varying level of understanding and needs when it comes to digital assets, blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. We only advise and commit our resources to projects and their teams for which we believe that Widus Partners can truly add distinctive value.

Investments

What makes Widus Partners distinctive in the markets in which we principally operate is that, along with our core advisory practice, we are able to bring our unique ability to take principal positions with companies with which we find most promising for growth and success.

Our usual approach is to invest prior to investments from or alongside strategic investors with which we have ongoing relationships, ensuring significant value-add immediately after our investment. We may also consider investing in the most promising companies with which we are providing advisory support, if and when we are invited to do so. We also invest in companies that are planning to do an IPO within 18 to 24 months of our investment.

Supporting our Private Equity and Principal Investments practice is our joint venture arrangement with Vogo Fund, an alternative asset management company in Korea with more than US$2 billion AUM, (“Vogo-Widus Investments”) which allows us to execute and book our principal investment deals in Korea.

Why Widus

Widus Partners is truly unique in establishing an ongoing synergy cycle to create
long-term value for our clients. Our core tenets comprise of the following.

Top-tier talent and culture

As we understand that our group will only be as capable as the ultimate cumulation of talented individuals that bring a unique skillset and strategic network to our client ecosystem, we prioritize on retaining a diverse group of professionals that abide by the highest levels of professionalism, integrity, interpersonal skills and teamwork.

Thought leadership

We like to think outside the box, and devise creative and cutting-edge solutions for our clients to help them stay at the forefront of their respective markets and industries. We strive to establish best practices for roads untraveled, paving the way for effective future guidance and value creation.

High quality execution

Leveraging our team base of seasoned professionals with expertise in various areas including corporate finance, PE, M&A, legal, consulting and digital assets, Widus Partners distinguishes itself from its peers in its ability to take the lead role in successfully executing and closing transactions. Concurrently, we leverage our long-term trusted advisor relationships with financial sponsors and family offices who act as co-investors or counterparties.

Track record & reputation

Although we take pride in our track record of advising on landmark deals, we put a much greater emphasis in continuing to add value to our clients, next-steps strategies and creating further synergies with our extensive pool of strategic partners. Retaining our reputation is key, which is why we think and act in the client’s best interest beyond any given transaction at hand.