Korean-based art exhibition platform Groundseesaw, operated by Media&Art, has secured a 110 billion KRW (approximately 8.3 million USD) Series A investment from HB Investment and Timefolio Asset Management. The company’s valuation is now estimated at 1,000 billion KRW (approximately 75.2 million USD).

With this investment, Media&Art plans to enhance Groundseesaw’s services and expand its operations both domestically and internationally.

Currently, Media&Art operates four branches in Seoul, exclusively supplying each with their self-developed exhibition IPs. Groundseesaw, which showcases over ten new exhibitions annually, has seen significant growth over the past three years, attracting an average of 1 million visitors each year.

This October, Media&Art will open its first permanent overseas exhibition venue, Groundseesaw Singapore, at Parkview Square. This project has drawn considerable attention as it is the first case where a domestic exhibition company has been selected for the Singapore Tourism Board’s support program. In Korea, they plan to open their fifth branch in Jeju later this year, launching with the second season of the popular 2021 Yosigo Photography Exhibition.

Since 2015, Media&Art has been actively targeting overseas markets by exporting their self-developed IPs. The “ALICE: Into the Rabbit Hole” exhibition has been held in seven cities across China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Last year in Tokyo, Media&Art launched the first commercial exhibition in Japan, “Accidentally Wes Anderson,” which received significant attention and is currently touring in Shenzhen, China, with a Shanghai opening scheduled for later this year. In October, they will also bring the highly successful “Yosigo Photography Exhibition” to Tokyo, which attracted 420,000 visitors during its 2021 Seoul run.

Jisung Wook, CEO of Media&Art, stated, “This investment acknowledges our accumulated expertise and competitive edge in content creation over the past decade. We aim to make Media&Art a leading force in making exhibitions a key genre of K-culture.”

Park Dong-joo, Executive Director at HB Investment, who led the investment, explained, “We were drawn to the high growth rate of creative immersive content globally and the stable portfolio of Media&Art’s creative planning capabilities. The steady profitability demonstrated by the ‘Groundseesaw’ permanent exhibition over the past three years, combined with the synergies with parent company Aniplus and its affiliates, significantly influenced our investment decision.”