Global venture capital (VC) firm Altos Ventures has chosen a domestic animation content studio as a new investment destination.
On the 13th, Altos Ventures said it made a new investment of about 6 billion won in the domestic content studio "Mofac Studios." The investment was led solely by Altos Ventures.
Mofac Studios, an animation content producer that uses visual effects (VFX) technology, began in 2004. Director Jang Seong-ho, regarded as one of Korea's first-generation VFX experts, founded the company.
Mofac Studios drew sudden market attention when it unveiled the feature-length animation "The King of Kings" in April. In its first weekend in North America, it went straight to No. 2 at the box office.
It was seen as an achievement in itself that a Korean content studio had entered the North American feature animation market dominated by Hollywood's "Big 5" (Disney, Pixar, Sony, DreamWorks, Illumination).
The King of Kings is an animation that reinterprets "The Life of Our Lord" by British novelist Charles Dickens, and in Korea it also climbed to No. 2 all time among Korean animated films at the box office.
Mofac Studios is said to have not only adapted Unreal Engine, a 3D image creation tool mainly used in the game industry, for filmmaking, but also developed technology that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) across production, including editing.
Mofac Studios plans to use the new investment to plan and produce its next feature-length animation following The King of Kings. It also scheduled an expansion of its global distribution network beyond North America.
An Altos Ventures representative said, "Korea is a place with outstanding content production and planning capabilities," adding, "Mofac Studios has technological innovativeness and, above all, box-office potential proven in North America."