Chat app-maker Kakao secures $130M investment for its game business

The company behind the Korean chat app KakaoTalk has secured a total of KRW140 billion (~$130 million) for its game-facing business, Kakao Games, thanks in no small part to investments from Tencent.

Black Desert Online dev Kakao Games plans to use the fresh funds to secure high-quality titles for future release in addition to strengthening its internal development capability, expanding its global business, merging and acquiring companies, and taking part in other investments geared towards growth.

The bulk of that $130 million investment came indirectly from the Chinese tech giant Tencent. Two Tencent subsidiaries, Aceville Pte Ltd and DianDian Interactive Holding, contributed to the funding round in addition to the Tencent-backed dev Netmarble Games.

Additional funds came from Premier Growth Strategy and fellow South Korean game devs Actozsoft and Bluehole.

Broken down, the Tencent subsidiaries and Netmarble contributed roughly KRW50 billion (~$46.9 million) each. Actozsoft invested KRW20 billion (~$18.8 million) while PUBG-parent Bluehole and Premier Growth Strategy each pitched in KRW10 billion (~$9.4 million).