Cross-media content IP startup Makovill announced that it has attracted 4.5 billion won in Series A2 investment. This investment was led by HiveIM and Laguna Investment, with participation from Kona Venture Partners, Smart Study Ventures, and KC Ventures.
Since its establishment in February 2020, Makoville has grown centered around key personnel with IP success experience at The Pinkfong Company and developers from Nexon and Neowiz. In particular, the infant character IP 'Cheetah Boo' is standing out in the global market, recording an average of 320 million monthly YouTube views.
In 2024, it signed a content distribution partnership with The Pink Fong Company, expanded its services to major IPTV and OTT platforms, and is accelerating its entry into the European and African markets by opening a new French channel. During the Lunar New Year holiday, it recorded 46 million weekly views in Korea, ranking first in the Korean view count rankings of the movie and animation section announced by Playboard, receiving much love.
The 'Cheetahbu' IP has shown success not only in the video industry but also in the book publishing sector. 'Army Workshop's Shop Play' has been published in its third edition due to the constant love from readers. Based on this competitiveness, Makoville is continuing to achieve success in the game market as well.
Makovill is currently servicing the mobile game 'Bellygom Matchland' utilizing Lotte Home Shopping's popular character 'Bellygom', and achieved the 1st place in the Google Play puzzle game popularity ranking and 2nd place in the overall game ranking within 3 days of its official domestic launch in January 2024. The iOS version showed high user satisfaction, recording an average D+1 retention of 53%.
Currently, Makovil is preparing a new game, 'Oz Re: Lite', which is being developed in collaboration with Hive IM. 'Oz Re: Lite' is a 2D animation graphic collection RPG, and it depicts a story of the protagonist and Rewriters saving the world in a world view that reinterprets various fairy tales. It features a unique method of building intimacy by interacting with heroes through the in-game SNS (Mirrorgram) system. Beta tests are scheduled to be conducted in major regions in the first half of this year.
“This investment is a strategic partnership based on our confidence in Makovil’s growth potential and the global success of ‘Oz Re:Lite,’” said Wooyong Jeong, CEO of Hive IM. “Through our collaboration with Makovil, we plan to support them in establishing themselves as competitive content in the global market.”
Park Young-ho, CEO of Laguna Investment, expressed his expectations, saying, “We made the seed investment in recognition of Makovil’s media mix strategy and the founder’s capabilities, and we expect that Makovil will grow into a comprehensive media IP company through this follow-up investment.”
Lee Ju-hyun, CEO of Marcoville, said, “This investment will allow us to further accelerate the expansion of our IP business and game development,” and “We have secured an important growth engine to become a global media entertainment company, and we will continue to grow into a content IP company recognized in the global market.”
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