Strong Ventures, KB Investment invest in K-pop metaverse

South Korea’s KB Investment Co. and US venture capitalist Strong Ventures LLC have invested in Stan World, a K-pop metaverse platform operator.

Stan World raised $3 million from KB Investment and Strong Ventures in Series A round funding, according to VC industry sources on Dec. 20. The platform’s enterprise value was estimated at $23 million after the fundraising, more than double the corporate value of last year when the US VC participated in the platform’s seed funding.

Stan World, established in 2019, operates a fandom platform for Asian popular music artists, including K-pop singers. The company, founded by K-pop enthusiasts, is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with a virtual studio in Seoul, according to its website.

A user selects his or her preferred artist and creates a virtual avatar to communicate with others on the platform. Users are able to earn points through fandom activities.

Stan World maintains the platform itself free of charge while providing additional charged services, such as creating a unique avatar or emoticons, through a monthly subscription. Its daily active users (DAU) have averaged around 1,100 since it launched the app in April.

The company expected the global popularity of K-pop to lead its growth along with recent the metaverse craze.

“The metaverse market is expected to grow $800 billion within three years,” said a VC source. “The combination of the new platform and K-pop, which is getting more popular, will create a significant synergy.”

KB Investment has recently been increasing investment in the metaverse. KB Investment joined a $25 million investment in a global metaverse platform Spatial earlier this month, and a 1.8 billion yen ($15.8 million) Series A round funding for a Japanese metaverse platform in October. In South Korea, it also invested in metaverse startup Daddaddad in August.

Write to Jong-woo Kim at jongwoo@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.