Tokyo, Dec. 14, 2023 – Line Next, the NFT subsidiary of Japanese messaging giant Line, has successfully raised $140 million in a funding round led by Crescendo Equity Partners, a private equity firm. This investment stands as the largest backing for an Asian blockchain company in the current year, according to the company’s announcement.
The capital infusion will serve to propel the global expansion of Line Next’s NFT business and introduce innovative services to foster broader adoption of Web3 technologies. The immediate focus is on the official launch of Dosi, Line Next’s global NFT marketplace, scheduled for January 2024.
Dosi, integrated with Line’s existing NFT platform in Japan, will be presented as a mobile application facilitating the worldwide trade of digital assets. Line Next, headquartered in South Korea with additional offices in the U.S. and Japan, is concurrently developing a social app enhanced by AI avatars and blockchain games featuring Line’s renowned Brown & Friends characters from the Line Friends IP. The company also manages the Game Dosi platform, hosting various NFT games.
In a strategic move, Line Next’s new services will be established on the blockchain network Finschia, previously known as Line Blockchain (originally the Link Chain). The native cryptocurrency of Finschia is LINK. As part of their commitment to expanding the blockchain’s ecosystem, Line Next and Crescendo will join the Finschia Foundation.
Crescendo Managing Partner Kevin Lee emphasized, “Line’s global competitiveness and its vision to lead Web3 services were the investment thesis.” He expressed the hope to establish a standard for Web3 applications that general users can readily adopt, integrating blockchain into a wide array of services and brands in the Web2 realm.
