LINE NEXT, the South Korea-based NFT arm of messaging giant LINE, has raised $140 million in investments to “popularize the Web3 ecosystem.”
In a rack Released today, LINE claimed the investment was “the largest funding round in the Asian blockchain Web3 industry for this year.” It was led by Crescendo Equity Partners, a Peter Thiel-backed private equity firm.
With the new capital, LINE plans to officially launch its global NFT platform DOSI in January 2024. “Through the integration with Japanese NFT marketplace LINE NFT, DOSI will be offered as a mobile app to users worldwide,” the company said.
Give brands ownership
LINE NEXT also plans to help brands ‘own’ and market existing digital products. The social media giant plans to introduce web3 games with the existing characters known as BROWN & FRIENDS.
“We hope to build a standard for Web3 apps that general users can easily use and adopt blockchain for a variety of Web2 services and brands,” Kevin Lee, Crescendo’s managing partner, said in the statement.
Youngsu Ko, CEO of LINE NEXT, said the team plans to “further popularize Web3 and develop a new service ecosystem in which users own the value of their digital goods.”
The social media giant is active in it venturing into the web3 space. It founded LINE NEXT in December 2021 and in September 2022 launched the beta service for its global NFT platform DOSI.