South Korea-based selfie camera app developer Snow has received $50m in funding from telecoms and internet conglomerate SoftBank and VC firm Sequoia China, TechCrunch reported today.
SoftBank and Sequoia China now own a 20% stake in Snow’s China business unit between them.
Japan-based internet company Naver originally launched Snow as an ephemeral messaging service similar to the offering of US competitor Snap, but Snow pivoted last week to focusing on a selfie camera app and removed the ability to send messages between users.
Snow previously obtained the photo app suite of Line, a messaging company spun out of Naver, including a selfie app called B612, the Line Camera app, food-focused camera app Foodie and makeup preview app Looks in March 2017.
The funding will go towards the development of augmented reality and facial recognition technologies, collaborating with China-based artificial intelligence producer SenseTime on the latter.
Snow previously obtained an undisclosed amount from Line in March 2017, which boosted Line’s stake to 48.6%. The corporate had previously owned 25% following a $45m investment in 2016.