South Korea Steps into the Metaverse
Metaverse is expected to manifest big, creating an alternative digital world. Investors are keen to be part of this rally, making startups in metaverse an attractive investment. Korean startup VA Corporation, a one-stop metaverse platform company, has achieved a corporate value of 1 trillion won ($80 billion) in the shortest time in the industry, moving one step closer to becoming a unicorn. VA Corporation signed a 100 billion won ($80 million) Series A investment contract with Paratus Investment, a private equity (PEF) manager.
Company to expand services, hire talent
Through this investment, VA Corporation will solidify its position as a leading company that pre-emptively responds to the metaverse industry. It will further strengthen its capabilities as a specialized Metaverse company by expanding the 115,000 m2 virtual studio in the metropolitan area (around Gyeonggi-do), nurturing metaverse experts, upgrading technologies such as NFT and virtual humans and developing new metaverse businesses. VA Corporation, which entered the domestic metaverse market in 2021, is currently developing Asia’s largest LED wall-based virtual studio (Hanam), virtual production technology using VFX (visual special effects), and original content IP libraries.
VA Corporation is the ‘Creative Alliance’ that can provide one-stop service from planning and production to branding and distribution of content. VFX specialized company Mopack and entertainment companies, drama movie production and investment distribution companies, advertisement production and branding companies, etc., to enhance content competitiveness. VA Corporation also has a long-term partnership with Netflix. The company is expanding its influence by forming technology-based alliances with leading companies.
Signed deals with Corporate giants
In December of last year, it signed a ‘business agreement for AI human and metaverse service innovation business based on super-giant AI (artificial intelligence) technology with LG AI Research Institute. Recently, VA Corporation also had started a joint research and development (R&D) center with LG Electronics spurring LED wall development for virtual production. It has also signed a ‘business agreement for developing VR (virtual reality) content business’ with Skonek Entertainment.
Dong-eon Kim, CEO of VA Corporation, said, “Through Paratus Investment’s investment, we will further expand the quantitative and qualitative growth of metaverse content. We will move forward as a company.”
Source: Jeon Jinju from KoreaTechDesk (March 14, 2022)
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