PI Corporation Secures 4 Billion KRW Series A Investment from Altos Ventures

1st Generation Influencer Founder Seongsoo Son's Startup
Alto Ventures Solely Participates in First Institutional Investment

PI Corporation announced on the 25th that it has secured Series A investment from Altos Ventures. This investment is the company's first external funding, amounting to approximately 4 billion KRW.

PI Corporation, founded in July 2021 by CEO Son Seongsu, a first-generation influencer with 4 million followers, is a new media entertainment company that nurtures short-form content creators and idols. Currently, it has exclusive contracts with about 100 short-form creators and 300 live creators. The main affiliated influencers include Yubin Kelly (7 million), Kim Hyemin (7 million), Jittomeok Ddo Muk (2 million), ChillLit (1.5 million), and Jeong Ria Alea (5 million). The combined followers across their TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube accounts exceed 200 million.

PI's core business is its creator development system. It discovers talents with few followers or those who have not yet started on social media and supports the production of short-form content for TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube based on their charm and interests. Additionally, through its proprietary system, it nurtures relatively promising but less recognized emerging creators into 'mega celebrities' with over 1 million followers. To enhance creators' exposure, it also runs various brand collaborations and campaigns. Notable clients include Dior, Calvin Klein, Nike, Vans, MLB, Samsung Electronics, Amorepacific, and Lotte Chilsung.

Son Seongsu, CEO of PI Corporation, said, “Through this investment, we plan to discover new business opportunities in the short-form content domain, which has limitless potential, including commerce and exclusive brand launches, nurturing new media idols unlike any existing market, and producing short-form dramas.”

Om Moonseok, partner at Altos Ventures, stated, “PI Corporation has demonstrated the capability to rapidly develop emerging creators into mega celebrities and has found successful revenue models through global music challenges and brand collaborations. With TikTok's rapidly increasing market share in the global digital advertising market and major SNS and commerce platforms shifting their marketing focus from text and images to short-form video content, we expect PI to establish itself as a key player, which led us to decide on this investment.”