South Korean internet portal operator Naver, the company behind chat app Line, has partnered with Japanese operator SoftBank to launch an USD 43 million global investment fund. Dubbed “SB Next Media Innovation Fund”, the project will provide funding for startups and technologies that have synergies with Snow, TechCrunch reports. Investments will be international, not limited to Korean startups.
Naver has marked Snow and Webtoon down as its next promising ventures. The SB Next Media Innovation Fund will include Snow CEO Chang-Wook Kim and Webtoon CEO Jun-Koo Kim as advisors. The Fund will mainly focus on investments in content creation startups and technology-based companies, in particular in the field of AR and VR, the companies said.
Naver and SoftBank aim to close the KRW 50 billion fund before end-2016. Of that capital, Naver will provide KRW 40 billion, while SoftBank Ventures will contribute KRW 4.5 billion. Korea Venture Investment, another VC firm, will add KRW 0.5 billion, with the remaining KRW 5 billion to come from third parties.
