Global Brain, an early and growth stage investor from Tokyo has just announced its most recent investment in a Korean startup. The “GB-V Growth Fund Investment Limited Partnership” managed by Global Brain Corporation, has invested an undisclosed amount in Mbite Inc., from Seoul, Korea. Founded in 2011 MBite is a global provider of game illustrators’ matching platform “rainbow.dot”. The fresh finances will be used to bolster R&D capabilities and hire a global sales team.
“rainbow.dot” is a cross-national matching platform that enables global game developers to purchase high quality graphics and illustrations created by selected artists residing in Korea. The platform has an automated built-in multi-language translation service as well as effective business process management capabilities. This enables multi-national game developers to utilize premium resources in Korea in a highly efficient manner.
When asked why Global Brain was interested in MBite, the response from the investors was emphatic: “MBite is growing amazingly fast,” said Yasuhiko Yurimoto, President and CEO of Global Brain. “The high reputation it is receiving from developers, largely from Japan and Korea at this moment, is supported by the qualified artists carefully selected through professional evaluation. The company is now ready to move on to other markets globally.”
While similar services do exist, particularly in Global Brain's home market of Japan, the investor has been particularly impressed with MBite's ability to scale quickly and gain clients outside Asia. Currently the company receives order from around 10 companies each month, with a total of 24 active clients at this time, and MBite has been able to deliver substantial cost savings across their current client portfolio.
“My team and I are very excited to have Global Brain’s investment and hands-on support,” said Jung-Yong Kim, CEO of Mbite Inc. “Global Brain is famous in Korea for its track record of growing Korean startups globally, such as the success of 5Rocks, Inc. We also strive to further enhance our platform with the capital, to enter markets in China and English-speaking countries.”
With this investment, Jiro Kumakura, Partner at Global Brain, has joined Mbite’s Board of Directors.
Global Brain recently invested in MBite, from Korea
About Mbite Inc: Mbite, Inc. is a leading platform provider for selling and buying graphics and illustrations, both 2D and 3D, for the game industry. It was founded in 2011 in Seoul, Korea, by a serial entrepreneur Jung-Yong Kim. The live service website “rainbow.dot” is available here.
About Global Brain Corporation: Global Brain is a Tokyo-based independent venture capital founded in 1998, which focuses on seed to middle stage IT startup companies. It currently manages 5 funds with a total amount of 250 million USD. It is well known for its intensive hands-on style investments with dedicated in-house business support team, and also known for growth hack support utilizing its extensive network with large corporations.
