<p>LINE NEXT, the NFT business arm of Tokyo-based Internet giant LINE Corporation, has secured a $140 million investment from a consortium led by Seoul-based private equity firm Crescendo Equity Partners, according to an <a href="https://linecorp.com/en/pr/news/global/2023/136" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">official press release</a> on Wednesday (KST). This is the largest investment in the Asian blockchain and Web3 industry this year.</p><p>“LINE’s global competitiveness and its vision to lead Web3 services were the investment thesis,” said Kevin Lee, Managing Partner at Crescendo. “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.”</p><h2 id="header-0">Ambitious roadmap</h2><p>LINE NEXT plans to use the funds to popularize Web3 by expanding its global platform and developing new services. This includes the official launch of DOSI, a global mobile NFT marketplace app for trading digital products, which will be integrated with LINE’s Japanese NFT marketplace LINE NFT. The launch is scheduled for January next year.</p><p>The firm will also enable Web2 services and brands to easily adopt Web3 technology by providing new solutions that allow them to directly own and trade digital products.</p><p>To further promote the widespread adoption of Web3 technology, LINE NEXT plans to create an app that utilizes AI technology to facilitate communication between users via characters they create themselves, as well as a new Web3 game featuring iconic LINE characters. These services will be developed on the public blockchain Finschia.</p><p>LINE NEXT and Crescendo will also participate as governance council members of the Finschia Foundation and contribute to the expansion of the ecosystem.</p><h2 id="header-1">Strategic investment</h2><p>Ko Young-su, CEO of LINE NEXT, pointed out that such a large-scale investment is a major step considering the global investment environment has recently been shrinking. “We plan to use this opportunity to further popularize Web3 and develop a new service ecosystem where users own the value of their digital goods,” he said.</p><p>Sponsored by Peter Thiel — the co-founder of Paypal, Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund — Crescendo is dedicated to discovering and investing in promising technology companies both in South Korea and overseas.</p>

LINE NEXT scores biggest Web3 investment in Asia of 2023

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