Kakao Japan draws investment worth 600 billion won

Kakao Japan – a Japanese subsidiary of Kakao which provides web-toon service across Japan – earned an investment of 600 billion won. Built upon its leadership in the Japanese web-toon market, a.k.a. the sanctuary of cartoons, and the massive investment leverage, Kakao Japan is expected to strengthen its market dominance.

Global investment group Anchor Equity Partners and overseas sovereign wealth funds poured 600 billion won into Kakao Japan, said Kakao on Thursday. “Ryan & Friends Fund” acquires 67,930 shares of paid-in capital increase to the third party allotment by Kakao Japan and some of its secondary shares. The issue price of the primary share is 8.28 million won per share. With Kakao’s shares adding up to 72.9 percent following the recent investment, Kakao Entertainment holds 18.2 percent while Ryan & Friends Fund takes up 7.8 percent.

Kakao Japan assessed that it is the first investment ever made in an overseas Kakao subsidiary, dubbing it the largest investment garnered by a content business in Japan this year. “Kakao Japan has increased its corporate value to 8.8 trillion won,” the company said. 　

Kakao Japan’s web-toon platform “Piccoma” has since last July topped the Japanese market in mobile web-toon application sales. The transaction value of 414.6 billion won last year rose by 188 percent compared to the previous year. Since “Only I Level Up” rolled out on Piccoma, this web-toon content has recorded more than 20 billion won in accumulated sales. 　

Opening studios in Japan and South Korea, each, Kakao Japan provides original web-toon series. It is reported that it will go public. “We are dedicate to investing aggressively in nurturing Piccoma and creators so that manga and web-toon can become a mainstream content across the globe,” Kakao Japan CEO Kim Jae-yong said.


Seong-Mo Kim mo@donga.com