Targeting European Market
Naver and Line will make investment in an investment company set up by Fleur Pellerin, a former French minister. They secured a foothold in Europe for the purpose of elevating people’s awareness of Naver and Line in the European market and creating synergies by discovering start-ups.
On September 29, Naver announced that the company took part in the K-Fund 1, a European investment fund of Korelya Capital founded by Pellerin, a former French minister of the digital economy and Antoine Dresch, a European financial specialist as an investor. Naver and Line invested 50 million euros, respectively and that is to say, 100 million euros in total.
As a Korean adoptee, Pellerin went into history as first Korean-born French minister. She served as minister of small business, innovation and the digital economy and cultural minister among other high-ranking jobs in the French government. Pellerin took the lead in “French Tech,” a start-up nurture program. “I will support companies which invest in the European IT market,” Pellerin said when she left public office in August. Currently, she is working as CEO of Korelya Capital.
The EU is employing a single digital market in the IT sectors as they advocate a single economic block. Korelya Capital is aiming to foster strong start-ups with competitiveness in Europe. This is why the financial company let Naver and Line invest in the EU market investment fund. Naver and Line are planning to make use of this investment as a bridgehead to expand its global reach beyond Japan and Southeast Asia.