12CM the original developer of ‘smart-stamp’ technology has received US$4.4m (KRW 5.2b) worth of investments from Korean domestic investments institutions. The four-way joint investment contributors are Capstone Partners, KDB Development Bank, Aju Investment Bank and Suprema Investment. For Capstone Partners, the investment is a follow up to their early stage investment in the company in late 2014.
In developing smart-stamp technology, 12CM have registered more than 200 patents and to integrate into industry the company is cooperation with large scale O2O (online to offline) companies. In Korea the companies that are co-operating with 12CM included SK, KT M-house, Yap, Pay Bank and Ticket Monster.
Recently the company has been busily expanding operations through provision of fintech services for prepaid coupons, ticketing and payments. 12CM will utilize the investment to strengthen their domestic shares of the direct payment and fintech markets, as well as penetrating markets in Japan and South East Asia.
In the Japanese market, 12CM has already experienced success with services provided to NESIC a subsidiary of NEC Group, to a Yahoo Japan subsidiary and it is expected that a large communication company will take on the technology before the end of the year,.
Shin Song Won from 12CM comments, “Within the domestic market, companies have created successful business models using our technology. Our plan is to take the proven business model globally and received the same recognition from abroad”.
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