South Korea-based online entertainment portal Watcha has completed a $12m series C round featuring subsidiaries of diversified conglomerate Doosan Group and financial services firm AJU Capital.
Neoplux and AJU IB Investment were joined in the round by Cognitive Investment, Leo Partners Investment, MG Investment, Songhyun Investment and Hashed.
Founded in 2011, Watcha operates a machine learning-powered online film and television streaming platform that offers recommendations based on a user’s reviews.
Watcha was originally named Frograms but adopted the brand name of its services last week. The company began offering book recommendations in 2017 and hopes to enter English-speaking markets eventually.
The company’s overall funding has now reached $21m. It raised $800,000 in a 2012 seed round featuring Kakao Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of internet services group Kakao previously known as K Cube Ventures.
Watcha secured $2.7m in a 2013 series A round featuring Capstone Partners, Mega Investment and Samho Green Investment, before adding $5.5m from investors including Kingsley Capital Partners and the state-backed Korea Development Bank in 2014, according to media reports.