GoodGang Labs attracts $2 mn from Kakao Investment

South Korea's GoodGang Labs, a startup focused on developing a 3D avatar-based communication platform, announced on Thursday that it has secured an additional investment of $2 million from Kakao Investment, a subsidiary of Kakao specializing in venture investments.

GoodGang Labs is developing human-to-avatar technology that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to replicate users' expressions and motions with 3D avatars in real time.

The company is currently alpha-testing the 3D avatar communications platform called KiKi Town. KiKi Town enables users to have comfortable and immersive conversations through avatars without exposing their own faces.

Through the ongoing alpha version testing, GoodGang Labs plans to validate user needs and marketability of KiKiTown and aims to release the beta version in the third quarter of this year.

Additionally, the company plans to actively incorporate blockchain-based non-fungible tokens (NFT). It has already introduced a proprietary avatar NFT called BeerGang on LINE Next's global NFT platform DOSI, and sold all 3,333 units in the first batch.

In the latter half of this year, it plans to unveil GangHouse, the Web 3.0 version of KiKiTown, which will allow users to converse with others and even broadcast using NFT avatars.

"Our company will utilize the investment funds to accelerate the development of the 3D avatar communications platform and AI representation technology, aiming to grow as a leading company in the next-generation communication market," CEO of GoodGang Labs Ahn Doo-kyung said.

Write to Lan Heo at why@hankyung.com