Nexon to invest $122 million over five years to fund promising Korean game developers
Nexon will invest 188.8 billion won ($122.3 million) over the next five years to back early-stage Korean game startups via a venture fund, through which Nexon will be able to acquire any popular game IP from the backed companies.
The Maple Island pop-up zone at Lotte World in Songpa District, southern Seoul, as seen from Seokchon Lake
CHO YONG-JUN
Nexon will invest 188.8 billion won ($122.3 million) over the next five years to back early-stage Korean game developers, starting with a new venture fund, the company announced on Tuesday.
Nexon Partners, the company's investment arm, invested 58.8 billion won into a fund — co-created with Kona Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on content — that will mainly back game developers from the seed round through Series A. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism contributed 60 billion won, and Kona Venture Partners supplied the rest.
"In Korea's early-stage game development market, weak investor sentiment still leaves even promising developers struggling to raise money," Lee Jung-hun, the president and CEO of Nexon, said.
"Given these conditions, we built a long-term ecosystem investment program to close […] that funding gap through public-private cooperation and discover the next generation of global IPs [intellectual properties]."
Nexon plans to contribute an additional 130 billion won once the funded startups get off the ground.
Under the investment program, Nexon can acquire any popular game IP from the backed companies, though it does not plan to take exclusive publishing rights.
The industry sees the fund as the start of a broader expansion for Nexon. Rather than paying high prices to acquire overseas studios, the company aims to secure the IP of promising Korean developers early.
"As online game growth slows, Nexon is looking for new revenue in console and indie game IPs," an industry source said.
BY OH HYEON-WOO [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
