[StartupRecipe] The Secret of Well-Funded K-Webtoon and Web Novel Startups

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#Weekly Funding Overview

[Oct. 17 ~ Oct. 21 ]

The total funds raised by Korean startups of this week is KRW 85.6 billion.

Company	Industry	Amount	Round	Investors
Pluglink	Electronic car charging	3.5 billion	Series A	Samsung secruties, LS electronics
Gopizza	Pizza	25 billion	Series C	Mirae Asset Securities, GS Ventures, CJ Investment, Capstone Partners, DS Asset Management, Big Basin Capital, DS Asset Management, Ncore ventures
Ariastudio	content	-	GRANT	TIPS
Fidesadvisory	Credit analysis	-	GRANT	TIPS
Infoplus	fintech	6 billion	Series A	The Square Private Equity, KB Investment, ID Ventures
Biocom	Healthcare	-		BlissVine Ventures
Needer	Geekworker matching	-		Wanted lab
Fridayslab	Business tool	1.6 billion	Pre-Series A	Primer Sazze Partners, Balon Capital
Genkore	Gene editing	15 billion	Series A	Stick Ventures, Aju IB Investment, Kiwoom Investment, SJ Partners, Clairvoyant Ventures
MAC Holdings:	Marketing Incubator	-	M&A	Directors Company
Koreaspacedata	Space Management	4 billion	Series A	CJ Investment, SK D&D
Arcreal	Digital Healthcare	6.1 billion	Seed	DSC Investment, Intervest, SDB Investment, Schmidt, Quantum Venture Korea
Dealertire	Tire sales	1.5 billion	Series A	HL Holdings, Strong Ventures
Reset Company	Energy	1.3 billion	Pre-Series A	Series Ventures, Gyeongnam CEI, Lighthouse Combine Investment, Hana Financial Group, Korea Social Investment
Lighters Company	KPOP Content	-		Hexagon Investment Consulting
Vetflux	Pettech	-	Seed	Sparklab
SOY MEDIA	Webtoon	-	Series A	F&F Partners
Vault Creation		10 billion		Feynman Asset Management
Anipen	Metaverse	17 billion	Series B	Korea Development Bank, Daishin Securities, ATU Partners, Neo Value, Ermus Investment, Medici Investment

Major Funding

• GOPIZZA, a company that offers single-serve pizza, has received KRW 25 billion in Series C funding. It has raised a total of KRW 45 billion and was valued at KRW 150 billion. It has entered India, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Indonesia and opened 160 stores in 5 countries.
• Metaverse platform Anipen has completed its series B investment of KRW 17 billion. It has secured a cumulative investment of KRW 30 billion and is preparing for an IPO.
• Vietnamese financial API InfoPlus has received KRW 6 billion in the Series A funding round. It develops and offers financial solutions in Vietnam.

#Trend Analysis

The Secret of Well-Funded K-Webtoon and Web Novel Startups

The popularity of K-content has not cooled down despite the deteriorating investment environment. In particular, funds are constantly flowing into the webtoon and web novel startups. Because they can spread globally and be adapted into a film or a drama using original IP, webtoons and web novels are highly recognized for their growth potential.

Last year, Kakao acquired webtoon and web novel platforms Tapas Media and Radish Media, and Naver acquired Wattpad, the world’s largest web novel platform. The unicorn-turned-Ridi has transformed into a webtoon and web novel platform. OTT provider Watcha announced its entry into the webtoon industry. Even the delivery service unicorn Woowa Brothers produces webtoon content. As it is said to be the next-generation industry that will lead the Hallyu wave, the market outlook is very bright.

Major startups like Radish, Topco, Copin, and Contents Lab Blue received hundreds to tens of billions of won in investments last year. But this year, the majority are seed to series A round investments costing less than 10 billion won.

The startups that attracted investment have in common that they are targeting the global market by securing original IP. The operator of Novelpia, Metacraft, closed its series A and B investment rounds this year alone and received KRW 12.5 billion, which was the largest amount of money raised. With 900,000 users, 25,000 web books, and 15,000 writers after just one year of operation, the company is expanding quickly. It will use the funds to discover new writers and carry out various IP projects through OSMU(One Source Multi Use) business utilizing the web novel IPs. Nuon Media, a webtoon and web novel content provider, raised KRW 4 billion and secured the funds to enter overseas markets. Nuon is releasing novel comics centered on romance fantasy on platforms at home and abroad. It plans to expand its scope to original webtoons in the future, actively promote the multi-use of IP sources, and break into foreign markets.

Investors also paid attention to webtoon producers for particular genres and audiences. With webtoons geared for female viewers, U-Jewel Media has garnered KRW 3.6 billion from NHN. Its webtoons are published on Naver, Kakao Page, and Lezhin. With this investment, it hopes to advance as a global female-oriented platform. Nautilus, a company that offers informational and educational webtoon services, received KRW 3.4 billion. Through its services, students can learn academic studies such as history, science, and humanities through webtoons. In addition, DLP Studio, a web novel subscription service for readers between the ages of 40 and 60, received seed funding.

Investors also favored startups that offer services to creators or introduce platforms with novel approaches to webtoon production. Webtoon Today, which raised KRW 2.1 billion, provides webtoon statistics to individual creators. It is a data analysis service that can assess the commercial performance of work at a very early stage of production, aiding creators in determining the direction in which to develop their work. Universe Stationery creates a platform for collaborative worldbuilding. Once readers have developed a worldview, they can interact with one another, publish web novels on the platform, and work together to publish those novels. Conpapa develops products that  incorporate the creative process that maximizes the efficiency of webtoon creation. It helps reduce repetitive tasks by streamlining the creative phase and broadening the possibilities for material reuse.