Emoticons are an integral part of the smartphone-led life. Their popularity has helped many startups grow their business, whether through emojis or using pictorial emotions for marketing. Korean startup EmoticBox Studio, which was launched in 2020, wants to enter the global market with Korean-made emojis and establish itself as a leading emoticon infrastructure solution provider.
Emoticon Infrastructure for creators and SNS providers
Founded in February 2020 by CEO Jae-won Lee, a former software specialist, EmoticBox provides solutions to domestic and foreign SNS providers to easily introduce ‘KakaoTalk-class’ emoticon infrastructure for free. Since it was released as an official service in January 2021, it has entered into partnerships with ten services such as collaboration tools, social dating services, and other communities.
The startup currently offers EmojiBox API to easily introduce emoticons to existing services, an EmoticBox App for users to download emojis, and Emoji Studio, space for creators to send proposals and make sales. The core of EmoticBox is that when a user purchases an emoticon, all services affiliated with it can be used. The aim of the startup is also to help Korean emoticon writers to enter overseas markets. EmoticBox is looking to enter overseas markets by signing contracts with service companies.
Investment to develop and expand services
The startup received its seed investment last year, and it helped it hire new team members and acquire an office. The startup got its pre-Series A investment to develop its emoticon infrastructure solution from Alumni Partners. The investment amount is confidential. Lee Hyung, an examiner from Alumni Partners, who made the investment, said, “I decided to make this investment in recognition of the advanced emoticon market and the inconvenience of startups making emoticons. I think that the excellent centralized emoticon quality and API-based easy linkage system of EmoticBox will be of great help to many companies.”
Meanwhile, Jae-won Lee, CEO of EmoticBox, said, “Emoticons are an essential tool for communication. On the other hand, it will be a great burden for most domestic and foreign companies to build and operate their emoticon distribution infrastructure like large services such as KakaoTalk and Line. We hope that various companies will relieve these burdens through Emotic Box.” Through this investment, EmoticBox plans to upgrade its B2B management system and accelerate the acquisition of affiliates.
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