This article was published on Dec. 18, 2024, at 2:53 p.m. on the ChosunBiz Money Move (MM) site.
The webtoon studio The Drawing Entertainment (Park Tae-jun Comic Company), created by Park Tae-jun, the author of the webtoon "Lookism," is pushing for a KOSDAQ listing. The Drawing Entertainment recently raised 25 billion won in investments from numerous financial investors, including KDB Industrial Bank.
According to investment banking (IB) sources on the 18th, The Drawing Entertainment recently signed an underwriting contract with NH Investment & Securities. The company aims to secure funds for an initial public offering (IPO) in 2026 to further expand its business.
The Drawing Entertainment has raised a total of 40 billion won in investment so far. Recently, it secured 25 billion won from KDB Industrial Bank (10 billion won), Atinum Investment (5 billion won), and SL Investment Partners (5 billion won), with the investment amount expected to rise to a maximum of 28 billion won. Until now, a total of 15 billion won had been raised through seed and Series A funding.
Also known as the Park Tae-jun Comic Company, The Drawing Entertainment is a webtoon studio established by Park Tae-jun in 2017. Park Tae-jun, the CEO, is currently serializing the top-ranked Friday webtoon "Lookism" on Naver Webtoon, as well as the number one Sunday webtoon "Fight Class 3," the number one Tuesday webtoon "Kim Manager," and various popular works including the YouTube channel "Bangbang's Daily Life."
The Drawing Entertainment is currently focused on targeting global markets, including Japan. The company plans to compete with global comic corporations by producing traditional shonen manga aimed at the global market, along with new works from Park Tae-jun. The Japanese manga market is estimated to be about 7 trillion won, three times the size of the domestic market, so successfully entering Japan could enhance the company's value.
The team behind "Bangbang's Daily Life," which boasts 1.2 million subscribers, entered into a master license agreement with Sony Creative Products earlier this year and is already conducting business in Japan. In August, they opened pop-up stores in Shinjuku and Shibuya, Tokyo, to sell character-related merchandise.
The largest shareholder of The Drawing Entertainment is CEO Park, who holds 56.37% of the equity. Strategic investor Naver Webtoon has a 35% stake. Other financial investors, including Korea Investment Partners, Innopolis Partners, Crit Ventures, and the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, also hold equity.
While the company's revenue is on the rise, it remains in a deficit. Last year, revenues reached 24.8 billion won, a 58.9% increase from the previous year; however, an operating loss of 2.1 billion won was recorded. High employee costs and the commissions paid to webtoon authors are believed to be contributing factors. Last year, 7.2 billion won was spent on personnel costs and 1.8 billion won on commission payments.
A representative of The Drawing Entertainment noted, "We expect our operating profit to turn positive in the fourth quarter of this year," adding, "We plan to leverage investment and offering funds to hire top talent and expand our manga genres to compete with global comic corporations."