John Lee, Founder of H2O Hospitality

About John Lee

John Lee (also known as Woong Hee John Lee) is the Founder and CEO of H2O Hospitality, a South Korean startup founded in 2015 that provides digital transformation and unmanned management solutions for hotels and resorts. He previously worked at Morgan Stanley before starting his career in hospitality operations, including a period doing cleaning work prior to launching H2O. The company manages approximately 40,000 units across Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand, with a focus on 4–5 star mainstream hotels.

John Lee at a glance

• Company: H2O Hospitality
• Total raised: $40M
• Latest round: Series C
• Investors: Kakao Investment, Korea Development Bank, Gorilla Private Equity, Intervest, NICE Investment, Samsung Ventures
• Location: Seoul, South Korea

More founders in Seoul, South Korea (44)

• Mike Nolan — Freenome
• Ari Ojalvo — REEF Technology
• William Tanuwijaya — Tokopedia
• Donghwan Kim — Backpackr
• Julian Teicke — wefox
• Kenan Bozkurt — Ziraat Bankası
• Sang-Gi Oh — Hyundai Bioscience
• Martin Bouchard — QScale
• Daniel Ek — Spotify
• Aamir Ibrahim — Jazz
• Steve Tzikakis — Sitecore
• Sameer Nigam — PhonePe
• Kamel Abou-Aly — Pickalbatros Hotels & Resorts
• Hyukjae Choi — Spoon Labs
• Gary Niederpruem — Forgent
• Stephen Catlin — Convex Group
• Sunwoo Kim — Wonderwall
• Jack Shields — Shields Health Solutions
• Brady Rafuse — euNetworks Group
• James Murphy — Invenergy
• Bryan Adams — Integrity Marketing Group
• Grant Cardone — Cardone Capital
• Jon Brause — World Food Programme
• Nicholas Green — Avid Biosciences
• Jesse Aguirre — Douglas Emmett
• Lihua Yue — Xingsheng Youxuan
• Sang Lee — ABL Bio
• Priit Lepasepp — Sunly
• Neil Masterson — OneWeb
• Joon Paek — Lotte Group
• Patrick Brown — Impossible Foods
• Anubhav Raj — Aligned Energy
• Val Milshtein — STACK INFRASTRUCTURE
• Jens Nielsen — BioInnovation Institute
• Eric Chen — Shanghai Raas Blood Products
• Rupert Morley — Pershing Square Holdings
• Kelvin Kim — Korea Credit Data
• Jay Flatley — Zymergen
• Kip Kirkpatrick — Vistria Group
• Myunghun Cha — Coinone
• Howie Liu — Airtable
• Jan Masschelin — FUNECAP GROUPE
• Cheng Wei — Didi Woya
• David Leech — Iyuno Media Group

Browse related founder lists (6)

• Founders in Seoul, South Korea
• Founders backed by Kakao Investment
• Founders backed by Korea Development Bank
• Founders backed by Gorilla Private Equity
• Founders backed by Intervest
• Founders who raised $50M+

Full founder directory · Investor directory · Company funding database · Fundraising library