Korean webtoon creation platform Toon Square attracts investment for ‘Tooning’

Korean webtoons market has been booming for the last few years. Lezhin Comics, Naver’s Webtoon, KakaoPage, Manta, Toomics, etc., are seeing new users every day. Webtoons or webcomics are profiting the publishers, and they are also helping creators share their craft and earn revenues.

Toon Square, a Korean AI startup, is helping webtoon creators and publishers with its Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven technology. The startup, a spin-off from Samsung’s C-Lab, received a pre-A investment from SShowlab, a company that works with various game companies for their IPs and brand building.

Giving creators a platform to make webtoons

Toon Square launched the SaaS-based AI webtoon production platform ‘Tooning’ in 2021. Tooning helps creators make webtoons for various platforms like websites, social media, digital cards, posters, AI in education, advertising, etc. Toon Square’s other services include 4CUT, a toon-based marketing tool, IT’s Self, a daily toon service, Toonmoji, comic-based emoji service, and text-to-on service. Toon Square had received its seed investment from Samsung Venture Investment in 2020

Toon Square, which started in Samsung Electronics C-Lab in 2017, has been developing app services that incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI). It was spun off from Samsung Electronics in November 2019 in recognition of its smart webtoon-type character technology using advanced AI that can produce various expressions such as facial expressions and movements.

Investment and expansion plan

Sshowlab, the latest investor in Toon Square, is a company that conducts IP business with various domestic and foreign game companies such as Riot. In particular, they recently launched LCK Shop, the official online mall of League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK). Talking about the investment, an official from Sshowlab said in a media report, “We highly value the potential of Tooning, which combines the cutting-edge technology of AI and the emotional item of the webtoon, and made a strategic investment.”

Toon Square is attracting attention as a storytelling content platform using AI technology and creative software in the non-face-to-face education market. The startup plans to expand its business to global markets such as the United States and Europe this year to continue various attempts for corporate growth. Meanwhile, Toon Square is recruiting talents to create core systems such as business expansion through game character IP, securing traffic in strategic countries, and advancing AI automatic cut generation algorithm technology.

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