Zepeto reaches $1B valuation after Softbank’s $150M investment
South Korea’s metaverse ecosystem Zepeto has received an influx of investment from Japanese multinational conglomerate Softbank via the group’s ‘Vision Fund 2’, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
In total, Softbank has invested a whopping $150 million into the subsidiary of South Korea’s leading tech company Naver Corporation, taking Zepeto’s valuation to reach unicorn status, i.e., $1 billion.
Zepeto is Asia’s largest metaverse platform, with more than 250 million users worldwide. The ecosystem allows users to create their own 3-D avatars and virtually connect people from all over the world. The platform is especially popular amongst females who are mostly between the ages of 13-24.
According to its website, Zepeto has more than 2 million daily active users, 1.5 million studio creators, and 50 million studio item sales. The metaverse ecosystem has also collaborated with several luxury fashion brands, including Gucci, Dior, Ralph Lauren, and Christian Louboutin in addition to sports brand Adidas.
“We’re probably the world’s largest virtual fashion marketplace,” Rudy Lee, Naver Z Corp’s chief strategy officer said to WSJ in the interview. Apart from Softbank, HYBE Corporation, the entertainment agency behind popular music group BTS, also invested $41 million in the same investing round.
Softbank has increasingly become active in the metaverse area. Recently, it led the $93 million funding round of metaverse gaming platform ‘The Sandbox’.
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