Asian messaging giant LINE raises $140 million to expand NFT venture

LINE NEXT, the South Korea-based NFT arm of messaging giant LINE, raised $140 million in investment to “popularize the Web3 ecosystem.”

In a statement 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. “Integrating with Japan’s NFT marketplace LINE NFT, DOSI will be offered as a mobile app to users around the world,” the company said.

"During the beta service, DOSI's top markets of active users are from Korea, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Vietnam and India," a LINE NEXT spokesperson told The Block. "We aim to popularize the platform globally through official launch."

Giving brands ownership

LINE NEXT also plans to help brands to “give ownership” of existing digital products and allow them to be traded. The social media giant intends to introduce web3 games featuring its existing characters known as BROWN & FRIENDS.

“We hope to build a standard for Web3 apps that general users can easily use and adopt blockchain to all sorts of services and brands of Web2,” Kevin Lee, the managing partner of Crescendo, said in the statement.

Youngsu Ko, CEO of LINE NEXT, said the team plans to “further popularize Web3 and develop a new service ecosystem where users own the value of their digital goods.”

The social media giant has been active in venturing into the web3 space. In December 2021, it established LINE NEXT and in September 2022 launched the beta service for its global NFT platform DOSI.

Updated to add LINE NEXT's comment on top markets.