Meet the Advisors: Teddy Kim Joins The Scale Factory

We are excited to welcome Teddy as our newest advisor in Berlin! Teddy brings a combination of operator experience, early-stage investing, and impact-driven work that fits right into the kind of growth journeys we work with. Today, he is a Partner at Heartfelt_, Europe’s first cheque fund, where he partners with founders right at the ideation stage. Before that, he led venture development and investments at APX, the joint venture between Axel Springer and Porsche.

“The earliest stages are often the most defining,” Teddy shares. “When you work with founders at the very beginning, you see how much the right early decisions shape not just the product, but the entire trajectory of the business.”

Before moving into venture full-time, Teddy built his own experience on the operating side. At Wayfair, he managed profitability and growth for the European business, navigating both market complexity and scale. Earlier, he helped build Mustard Seed Impact from its inception, which became one of the UK’s first early-stage impact VCs, now known as Mustard Seed+ Partners.

Along the way, his career has spanned a range of experiences from coordinating partnerships for an urban agriculture startup in Los Angeles, leading a 200-person student volunteer team at a national medical center, teaching secondary school in Ghana, to pursuing his passion for the violin, performing at venues like the Hollywood Bowl, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Mozarteum, and Smetana Hall.

“What’s always stayed consistent for me is the focus on purpose,” Teddy says. “Whether it’s business, investing, or even music, it’s about building something that’s meaningful and lasting.”

Teddy also continues to stay actively involved in the broader investment ecosystem as a member of the investment advisory committees for both the Growth Impact Fund and the London Business School Student Impact Investment Fund.