LINE’s subsidiary focused on blockchain and NFT development, LINE NEXT, announced on Wednesday (13th) that it has completed a $140 million funding round as part of its “Web3 Ecosystem Popularization” plan. The company plans to use the funds to expand its global business and develop new services.
DOSI is expected to be officially launched in the first quarter of 2024. LINE NEXT plans to introduce various new services to further accelerate the popularization of Web3.
The funding round was led by Crescendo Equity Partners, a private equity firm supported by renowned entrepreneur Peter Thiel. LINE claimed in a statement released today that this investment is “the largest funding round in the Asian blockchain Web3 industry this year.”
With the new funding, LINE plans to officially launch its global NFT platform, DOSI, in January 2024, providing a digital marketplace for trading various digital products. The company stated that it plans to introduce various new services to further accelerate the popularization of Web3.
LINE NEXT also plans to launch new solutions to help various services and brands directly assign ownership of existing digital products and enable the trading of these products.
Kevin Lee, Managing Partner at Crescendo, stated in the announcement that the new services to be launched by LINE NEXT include a social app that allows users to communicate using AI-generated characters, as well as a Web3 game that combines LINE’s popular original sticker characters, “BROWN & FRIENDS.” Youngsu Ko, CEO of LINE NEXT, stated that the team plans to “further popularize Web3 and develop a new service ecosystem that allows users to own the value of their digital goods.”
LINE NEXT plans to build these services on the public blockchain Finschia. LINE NEXT and Crescendo will participate as governance members in the Finschia Foundation to contribute to the expansion of its ecosystem.
Finschia is LINE’s third-generation mainnet, formerly known as LINE Blockchain, with $FNSA as the underlying token (originally LN, renamed in May of this year).
LINE has been actively entering the Web3 field. The social media giant established LINE NEXT in December 2021 and launched a beta version of its NFT platform, DOSI, in September last year.
Source: Related reports: “LINE CONVERGE 2022 Annual Press Conference: Global NFT Platform DOSI Launches, Announces First Wave of Collaborations with IPs, Brands, and NFT” and “Azuki Development Team Announces Collaboration with Line Friends’ Parent Company IPX to Launch Innovative IP Business.”
