# Surjectivity of Exponential Map of a Lie group

I'm trying to learn some Lie algebra theory with bare bones knowledge of differentiable manifolds, and little knowledge of Lie groups. I see why the exponential map $\exp: \mathfrak{g} \to G$ is surjective if $G$ is a Lie subgroup of $GL_n(\mathbf{C})$. However, my intuition is a little loose when it comes to isomorphisms of Lie groups. If $H$ is a Lie group isomorphic to some matrix Lie group, does this imply that the exponential map $\exp: \mathfrak{h} \to H$ is surjective. Furthermore, is there a nicer condition to guarantee that a Lie group is isomorphic to a matrix Lie group (it seems like almost all interesting examples of Lie groups are, except for the covering spaces of certain matrix Lie groups)?

First, it is not true that the exponential map is surjective if $G$ is a Lie subgroup of $\operatorname{GL}_n(\mathbb{C})$. One trivial situation in which it might fail to be surjective is if $G$ is not connected as can be already seen in the zero-dimensional case. Even if $G$ is connected, the exponential map might not be onto (see this example).
However, if $G$ is compact and connected then the exponential map is onto. In this case, $G$ is also isomorphic to a matrix lie group.