Nexon and Kona Venture Partners Launch $179M Gaming Fund
TL;DR
Nexon has formalized a public-private gaming investment vehicle worth up to ₩250 billion (roughly $179 million) over five years, built around a ₩120 billion core fund called the Kona Global IP Investment Partnership. The core fund is co-backed by Nexon's newly created investment subsidiary Nexon Partners, Seoul-based gaming VC Kona Venture Partners, and South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (via the Korea Fund of Funds, contributing ₩60 billion). On top of that, Nexon Partners has committed up to ₩130 billion in direct follow-on capital for portfolio companies that graduate to growth stage. The structure targets Korean game studios building globally scalable IP, live-service titles, and AI-driven development tools, at a moment when early-stage game investment in Korea has fallen sharply and foreign titles dominate domestic mobile charts.
Key Takeaways
This is publisher capital without the publishing strings, and that's the actual innovation. Nexon is explicit that portfolio companies will not be required to sign publishing agreements with Nexon as a condition of funding. For a market where the biggest checks have historically come bundled with IP capture and distribution lock-in, an "open ecosystem model" from a company Nexon's size is a real structural signal, not just a marketing line.
The government co-investment is doing double duty as both capital and validation. ₩60 billion of the core fund's ₩120 billion comes from Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism through the Korea Fund of Funds. That's a near-even public-private split, which lowers Nexon's effective cost of capital while giving the vehicle a policy mandate to plug what Seoul clearly sees as a structural gap in early-stage game financing.
The two-tier structure (core fund plus follow-on sleeve) is built to solve the "graduation problem." Early-stage game funds are common; the harder problem is what happens when a studio clears its closed beta and needs real growth capital fast. By pairing the ₩120 billion Kona-managed fund with up to ₩130 billion in direct Nexon Partners follow-on capital, the program is explicitly designed to keep backing winners past their first check instead of forcing them to a new investor at the moment of maximum momentum.
Timing tracks a real down-cycle in Korean game funding, not a speculative land grab. Korean game startup investment reportedly fell about 46% year-over-year in 2025 to roughly 19 deals, with total deal value around ₩110 billion. A major publisher stepping in with a nine-figure-dollar program while the category is out of favor is a classic countercyclical move, and it will meaningfully change the funding math for Korean studios that have struggled to raise from traditional VCs over the past two years.
Fund Overview
Fund Name: Kona Global IP Investment Partnership (Kona Global IP Investment Fund), backed by a broader Nexon Partners follow-on commitment
Fund Size: Publicly reported at up to ₩250 billion (~$179-180 million) in total capital over five years — a ₩120 billion (~$87 million) core fund plus up to ₩130 billion in Nexon Partners follow-on capital
Stage: Seed through Series A for initial checks, with follow-on capital for growth-stage studios
Check Size: Not publicly disclosed
Geography: South Korea, with a mandate to back IP with global reach
Focus: New gaming IP with global potential, next-generation live-service games with strong user acquisition economics, and studios building AI-driven game development tools and experiences
Key LPs: Nexon Partners (Nexon's investment subsidiary), Kona Venture Partners, South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism via the Korea Fund of Funds
Why This Fund Matters
Korea's game industry has an odd paradox: it is home to some of the most sophisticated live-service operators in the world, yet its early-stage funding market has been quietly contracting for years. Local reporting on the launch cites a roughly 46% year-over-year drop in game startup investment in 2025, down to around 19 disclosed deals worth roughly ₩110 billion combined. Meanwhile, foreign titles increasingly dominate Korean mobile game charts, squeezing the mid-sized domestic developers who used to be the ecosystem's backbone. That's the backdrop against which Nexon, Korea's largest game company by revenue, is stepping in with public-sector co-investment rather than leaving the gap to be filled by generalist VCs who have been pulling back from gaming as a category.
The mechanics matter as much as the headline number. Structuring the vehicle as a core fund managed by an independent, specialist VC (Kona Venture Partners) rather than a purely in-house corporate development arm gives it real investment discipline and a portfolio-construction process that isn't simply "whatever helps Nexon's roadmap this quarter." Layering in government capital through the Ministry of Culture's Korea Fund of Funds program adds a policy dimension: Seoul has an explicit interest in keeping domestic IP creation onshore and globally competitive, and this is one of the more concrete recent examples of that policy translating into an actual capital commitment alongside a private strategic.
The "no forced publishing deal" condition is the detail worth dwelling on longest. Corporate strategic capital in gaming has historically come with strings: take our check, and we get first look, or exclusive publishing rights, or IP ownership terms that founders often regret two years later. By explicitly ruling that out, Nexon is betting it can win access to the best next-generation Korean IP through capital and platform support alone, competing on terms rather than leverage. If it works, expect other regional publishers (Krafton, NCSoft, Netmarble) to face pressure to match the model rather than lose deal flow to Nexon's cleaner terms.
For the broader venture ecosystem, this is also a data point in a pattern Fund Momentum has flagged before: strategic and corporate capital stepping into funding gaps that generalist VCs are stepping back from, particularly in categories perceived as cyclical or hit-driven, like gaming. Whether that's healthy for founders long-term depends heavily on execution discipline, which is exactly why the choice to route the core fund through an independent specialist manager rather than pure corporate development is the single most important structural decision in this announcement.
The Team
The capital is jointly managed through two entities. Kona Venture Partners is a Seoul-based, gaming- and entertainment-software-focused venture firm founded in 2018; its reported portfolio spans roughly 32 investments across 23 active companies with five recorded exits, including recent bets like Sandy Floor, StudioBside, ActionFit, Macovill, and Tripearl Games, and it has co-invested alongside Kakao Ventures, Devsisters Ventures, Korea Investment Partners, and Korea Development Bank. Nexon has not published a detailed roster of individual named partners at Kona Venture Partners in its own materials, so Fund Momentum is not attributing specific general partner titles beyond confirming Kona Venture Partners as the fund's manager.
On the Nexon side, the program is being driven by Nexon Partners, a dedicated investment subsidiary the company established earlier in 2026 specifically to house this kind of strategic capital activity. Kim Han-joon, Nexon's Chief Investment Officer, is the named executive framing the initiative publicly, describing early-stage IP and technology access as "one of Nexon's most important priorities for maintaining its leadership in the global game market." Nexon President and CEO Junghun Lee has separately spoken to the market conditions motivating the program, pointing to a "prolonged contraction in investor sentiment" that has left promising Korean developers struggling to secure funding even when their games show real potential.
Early Portfolio
Because the Kona Global IP Investment Partnership and the associated Nexon Partners follow-on sleeve were only formally detailed this week, there is no disclosed portfolio under this specific vehicle yet. Korean press coverage indicates the first formal investment reviews under the program are expected to begin in the second half of 2026, targeting studios approaching closed beta testing and global launch preparation. Kona Venture Partners' existing, separate portfolio (Sandy Floor, StudioBside, ActionFit, Macovill, Tripearl Games, among others) offers the clearest signal of the manager's investing style, even though those deals predate this specific fund.
What This Means for Founders
If you're running a Korean game studio building original IP with global ambitions, a live-service title with real user-acquisition economics, or tooling that applies AI to game development, this is a fund worth getting in front of, especially given the explicit no-forced-publishing-deal structure. The fact that first reviews are targeted for the second half of 2026 means there's a real, near-term window to get on Kona Venture Partners' radar before the initial allocation decisions are made, and studios that are approaching closed beta or preparing for a global launch look like the sweet spot the program is designed for.
For studios that clear the early bar, the more interesting long-term value-add may be the follow-on sleeve. A publisher-adjacent investor with up to ₩130 billion earmarked for graduating portfolio companies, and a stated intent not to force IP or distribution terms, is a meaningfully different profile than a typical Series A/B investor who has no platform to offer beyond capital and a board seat. Founders should still do standard diligence on governance rights and any side letters around future publishing conversations, even absent a formal mandatory publishing requirement.
Fund Momentum Take
We like the structure here more than the headline number. ₩250 billion sounds large in isolation, but roughly half of that is a follow-on commitment that only gets deployed if the core fund's bets actually work, and the core ₩120 billion fund is split close to evenly between government and private capital. What's genuinely notable is the governance choice: routing capital through an independent specialist manager (Kona Venture Partners) instead of running it purely as Nexon corporate development, and publicly committing to not force publishing agreements. Those two decisions, if honored in practice over the life of the fund, are what will actually determine whether this becomes a trusted source of capital for Korean founders or just a well-funded pipeline into Nexon's own catalog.
The risk worth watching is follow-through under pressure. Corporate-adjacent funds with public "no strings attached" positioning have a way of quietly tightening terms once a portfolio company becomes strategically important to the parent, particularly around IP that turns out to be genuinely valuable. We'd also flag that we don't yet have visibility into individual check sizes, ownership targets, or governance terms, which matter enormously for how founder-friendly this actually is in practice versus on paper.
Our bet: this program will meaningfully move the needle on Korea's early-stage game funding gap in the next 12-18 months simply because of scale and timing (launching into a real down-cycle), and it will put pressure on Krafton, NCSoft, and Netmarble to stand up comparable vehicles rather than cede deal flow. Whether it becomes a model other regional publishers should copy, versus a cautionary tale about corporate strategic capital, will depend entirely on whether Nexon actually holds the line on the open ecosystem model once real IP value is on the table.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much capital is actually in this fund?
Korean press reports put the total program at up to ₩250 billion (roughly $179-180 million) over five years: a ₩120 billion (~$87 million) core fund called the Kona Global IP Investment Partnership, plus up to ₩130 billion in direct follow-on capital committed by Nexon Partners for graduating portfolio companies.
Who manages the fund day-to-day?
The core fund is managed by Kona Venture Partners, an independent, Seoul-based gaming- and entertainment-software-focused VC founded in 2018, working alongside Nexon Partners, the investment subsidiary Nexon established in 2026 to house this initiative.
Do portfolio companies have to sign publishing deals with Nexon?
No. Nexon has explicitly stated that receiving capital does not obligate a studio to enter a publishing agreement with Nexon, which the company is framing as an "open ecosystem model" distinct from traditional strategic-investor terms.
What kind of studios is this fund targeting?
Three priority areas: new gaming IP with global scale potential, next-generation live-service games with strong user-acquisition economics, and studios applying AI to game development. Capital is generally aimed at studios approaching closed beta testing through global launch preparation, with growth-stage follow-on available after that.
When can studios expect to hear back on funding?
Korean press coverage indicates the first formal investment reviews are expected to begin in the second half of 2026.
Have a fund closing to announce? Submit your fund here.
Need help raising capital? Check out our Fundraising Advisory services.