SM Culture Partners has invested in Scon, the company behind meechu, a rising VTuber (virtual YouTuber) entertainment venture transitioning from a 3D character production solution provider. The investment comes from SM Entertainment’s corporate venture capital (CVC) arm, established with a 50 billion won investment.
According to industry sources in South Korea, SM Culture Partners has recently participated in a pre-Series A funding round for Scon, alongside QUAD Ventures and SB Partners.
Scon, initially a social contribution platform founded in 2018, pivoted to meechu in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. meechu specializes in VTuber solutions for live commerce, broadcasting, and content creation using brand characters. It has also expanded into managing domestic VTuber groups.
SM Culture Partners focuses on Principal Investments (PI) synergistic with SM Entertainment. PI involves securities firms investing their proprietary funds directly in stocks, bonds, real estate, M&A, etc., separate from stock trading mediation. In June 2022, SM Culture Partners hired Park Seong-ho, who previously managed PI investments at Mirae Asset Securities and Export-Import Bank of Korea.
Through PI, SM Culture Partners selectively invests in companies aligned with SM Entertainment’s core businesses. For instance, MODHAUS offers blockchain technology beneficial to SM Entertainment’s artist operations, while Koylabs collaborates with SM Entertainment on Korean language education services using IP from idol groups like NCT and aespa.
The partnership between SM Culture Partners and Scon suggests future collaborations between SM Entertainment and Scon in virtual content development. Scon plans to utilize the investment to expand its VTuber IPs and foster virtual idol groups.
A industry insider commented, “VTuber market is growing despite slower-than-expected metaverse and virtual reality growth,” adding, “It seems that VTuber-related projects from SM Entertainment and Scon will progress together.”
