'Zombie and Monster Specialist' Westworld Secures 20 Billion KRW Series A Investment

IMM Investment Secures Investment Funding

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] From the eyeball monsters in Netflix’s Sweet Home to the student zombie hordes in All of Us Are Dead, Westworld, which handled the visual effects (VFX) of these major productions, has secured a Series A investment worth 20 billion KRW.

Westworld announced on the 11th that it raised a total of 20 billion KRW in Series A funding from IMM Investment, a domestic venture capital (VC) firm.

IMM Investment is the largest domestic venture capital firm that has discovered early-stage ventures such as Woowa Brothers (Baedal Minjok), Musinsa, Krafton (Battlegrounds), and Bucketplace (Today’s House), nurturing them into unicorn companies.

Founded in 2018, Westworld is a VFX-specialized company equipped with groups for each stage of pre-production (video pre-production), production (on-site directing), and post-production (video post-production), making it a comprehensive content company. Moving beyond simple video production outsourcing, it utilizes its independent research and development (R&D) lab to participate from the scenario development stage, providing integrated technical solutions and pre-consulting services.

In particular, from its early days, Westworld has maintained a strategic partnership with the global entertainment streaming service Netflix, introducing for the first time in Korea a virtual production system using real-time game engines and Ncam?previously only possible in Hollywood?in the Netflix series Sweet Home, achieving groundbreaking creature visuals. Later, in Space Sweepers, it used a large LED wall, Unreal Engine, and OptiTrack to create an advanced concept of virtual production, filming the lunar background in real time for the first time in Korea.

Major works include Sweet Home, Space Sweepers, Dr. Brain, All of Us Are Dead, the films Seobok, Spring in My Hometown, as well as upcoming releases such as Smuggling, Bogota, and Hero. Its DI (Digital Intermediate) division, responsible for the final stage of post-production, has attracted attention with surreal color grading, contributing to the global Netflix viewing time record-holder Squid Game, Apple TV+’s Dr. Brain, dramas Bulgasal (tvN), Mine (tvN), and films Miracle, Restricted Call, and Pipeline. The company has also maintained high-level discussions with Japanese and Chinese companies as well as Netflix.

The company’s revenue showed a high growth rate, increasing more than 50 times compared to its first year as of 2021. Recently, it expanded its business by purchasing a headquarters building in Ilsan spanning five floors and 3,700 pyeong (approx. 12,230 square meters) equipped with the latest facilities. In January this year, its subsidiary, drama and film production company Westworld Story, simultaneously released its debut work Tracer on MBC and Wavve. Currently, it is preparing series projects as well.

IMM Investment, which decided on the investment, stated, “We judged Westworld, which possesses global competitiveness to lead the next-generation media content industry, as having promising potential to grow into a prospective unicorn company.”

Son Seung-hyun, CEO of Westworld, said, “VFX is a field with even greater future prospects, not only in movies and dramas but also in games, metaverse, and XR (extended reality). As the world is paying attention to the K-content market, we plan to firmly establish our status as a qualitative global company while discovering growth engines to become a leading company in efficient production and industry fair practice improvements.”

Meanwhile, Westworld plans to expand its collaboration scope with major online video streaming service (OTT) providers such as Netflix, Apple TV Plus (+), Disney+, and Wavve.