23 December - Buzzvil a startup based in Seoul Korea and the creators of a mobile lockscreen advertising platform have received a series B investment of US$11.2m (KRW 13b). The investment comes from five (5) separate investors comprised of LB investment, KTB network, POSCO Ventures, Company K Partners, and ES Investment. This is the second investments for Buzzvil after their US$3.4m (KRW4b) investment from Softbank Investment two (2) years ago in December 2013.

Founded in 2012,Buzzvil has created and successfully monetized the concept of using smartphone lockscreens to connect advertisers and consumers. Its flagship mobile app, Honeyscreen, has reached over 3 million users in South Korea, and its counterpart, Lockjoy, is now the leading lockscreen advertising platform in Japan.

LB Investment’s Jung Kyoung Eun, who lead this investment commented, “Buzzvil leads the industry with many technical strengths including: lockscreen related business know-how through Buzzvil’s ‘Honey Screen’; a proven platform in ‘OCB lock’; and supporting software development tool SDK”. With the investment fund, Buzzvil plans to, ‘strengthen core technologies and manpower, establish joint ventures with communication and mobile manufacturers, and advance plans for markets outside Korea”.

Buzzvil plan on using the investment to horizontally expand its lockscreen platform business. The company launched ‘Honey Screen’, a lock screen advertising service in January 2013. Upon launching, the service gathered 6 million users throughout Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Subsequently in May, Buzzvil launched ‘Buzz Screen’ a simple software development tool to complement Honey Screen and to complete the lock screen platform offering.

Advertising partners utilizing Buzz Screen are able to directly input the volumes of advertising contents and operate a service like Honey Screen. The generated advertising revenue are shared with Buzzvil whilst users of the service benefit from increased marketing without marketing fees. OK Cashback, a successful example of Buzzvil partnership which managed to gain 400 thousand users of OCB lock within the first four months.

Lee Kwan Woo from Buzzvil commented, “Our investors were very impressed with Buzz Screen which offers a strategic lockscreen business and not simply an app like Honey Screen”. “Through  partnerships our aim is to be the global leader with advertising for the first screen”.