Nexon will jointly identify next-generation "K-games" to target the global market in partnership with the government. The strategy involves operating a large-scale investment program totaling 250 billion won to nurture promising developers and secure intellectual property (IP) that can compete in the global market, while expanding its pool of future allies through early-stage investment participation to create synergy with Nexon.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Nexon said Thursday that they had formed the "KONA Global IP Investment Association," a 120 billion won strategic fund investing in superior game IP and early-stage game developers. The fund-of-funds resources from the ministry's IP account will contribute 60 billion won, Nexon 58.8 billion won, and the operator KONA Venture Partners 1.2 billion won. This fund is the largest ever among the culture account's sub-funds. Nexon established an investment corporation, "Nexon Partners," to exclusively handle this project.
Investment targets include next-generation game developers as well as IP capable of global expansion. The fund will provide stage-by-stage funding from the seed to Series A stages in line with developers' growth potential. Investment will also be made in superior IP with high global expansion potential, including stories, narrative IP, and convergence content IP, centered on the gaming sector.
In addition, Nexon plans to inject approximately 130 billion won in separate funding into developers with superior technological capabilities and IP. This is directly linked to securing Nexon's future growth engine. The plan is to participate as a strategic investor in companies with potential and lay the foundation for discovering IP that can compete in the global market. Earlier, Nexon made its first investment in 2018 in the Swedish developer "Embark Studios," then at the startup level, which led to the development of the hit title "ARC Raiders," which went on to record 16 million units in global sales.
"At a time when promising game developers are struggling to raise funds, we aim to close the early-stage funding gap through public-private cooperation," said Lee Jung-hun, CEO of Nexon Partners. "We will operate this as a long-term ecosystem investment program to discover next-generation global IP born out of the AI transition."
