Naver Financial is investing $15 million (approximately KRW 17.1555 billion) in TBCA Soft, an American blockchain developer.
Naver Financial announced on the 4th that it would invest $15 million in TBCA Soft of the United States. Naver Financial is considering an investment of up to $20 million (approximately 22.922 billion won).
TBCA Soft supplies blockchain technology to telecommunication companies and mobile payment service providers (MSPs). TBCA Soft uses blockchain technology to support simple mobile payments between countries and operates the blockchain cross-carrier payment system ‘HIVEX’.
Naver Financial explained that it decided to make this investment strategically to expand ‘Naver Pay’ global payments and discover future businesses.
There are two noteworthy points in this investment plan announcement. This is due to the fact that Naver Financial invested a large amount of funds into promising startups rather than affiliates and collaboration with Softbank.
Naver Financial has secured solid financial power along with the growth of its fintech business. Naver Pay’s payment amount in the second quarter was 9.1 trillion won, a 47% increase compared to the same period last year.
Until now, Naver Financial’s funds have been mainly used to support the growth of Naver affiliates (Cream, Naver Cloud, etc.). It is an unusual move for Naver Financial to invest tens of billions of won in startups.
The continued cooperation between Naver and Softbank is also notable. SoftBank is the largest investor in TBCA Soft, and with this investment, Naver Financial becomes the second largest investor in TBCA Soft.
Naver and Softbank announced plans to integrate the management of Naver’s Japanese subsidiary Line and Z Holdings, operated by Softbank, in November 2019, and completed the integration process in March.
At the time, the two companies said, “We feel a sense of crisis that the position of foreign companies based in the U.S. and China is overwhelming in the Internet service market,” and “To combat this, we plan to create synergy in business areas such as artificial intelligence (AI) and e-commerce.” The reasons for the integration have been explained. Based on this investment, the two companies are expected to continue discussing ideas related to global mobile payment services.
Ling Wu, founder and CEO of TBCA Soft, said, “TBCA Soft will focus on developing HIVEX, a blockchain-based payment network with Naver Financial and Softbank.” He added, “The HIVEX network will be used by sellers, users, and mobile payment operators around the world.” “We will create it through a network,” he said.
Meanwhile, Naver Financial, which is pioneering the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) techfin market with a focus on commerce business, recently invested a total of $65 million (approximately KRW 74.3 billion) in the Indonesian grocery delivery service platform ‘Happy Fresh’ along with Mirae Asset and Stick Investment. did.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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