Innocean Acquires VFX Company 'Studio Lennon'... "Evolving into a Content Leading Company"

Enhancing VFX-Based Digital Customer Experience and Production Capabilities
Expanding VFX-Related Businesses Such as Virtual Humans and NFT... Securing New Growth Engines

(From left) Seo Chaewon, CEO of Studio Lennon, and Lee Yongwoo, CEO of Innocean, are posing for a commemorative photo at the equity investment contract signing ceremony held at Innocean headquarters on the 21st.

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] Innocean Worldwide announced on the 22nd that it has acquired shares in the visual effects (VFX) video production company 'Studio Lennon,' becoming the largest shareholder. Established in 2020, Studio Lennon is a startup producing various digital content including special effects, with major clients such as large domestic and international game companies and advertising productions.

Innocean explained, "Studio Lennon was founded by four executives with over 20 years of experience in the domestic VFX industry and financial investor (FI) Director Jaeyoung Park. Although a latecomer in the industry, we judged that it has high growth potential in manpower and technological capabilities, leading to this acquisition." Currently, leading domestic VFX companies have market capitalizations of around 1 to 2 trillion KRW, so Studio Lennon's future corporate value is also expected to increase.

Innocean aims to be a business partner that enhances the overall client experience beyond the role of an advertising agency. The reasons for deciding this equity investment include ▲ strengthening customer experience content competitiveness through securing digital production capabilities ▲ exploring new business opportunities in the metaverse era ▲ supporting integrated customer experience expansion as a marketing partner for clients ▲ building software competitiveness to create synergy with mobility business.

Studio Lennon is preparing to evolve into a metaverse company with content such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), as well as virtual humans and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Innocean is also planning additional mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to strengthen synergy with Studio Lennon. Innocean stated, "Through this equity investment, we have acquired comprehensive digital content production capabilities spanning games, animation, movies, dramas, and the metaverse beyond advertising," adding, "Our business scope will expand comprehensively."

Innocean is undergoing digital transformation across its business, including advertising production. Its domestic digital advertising handling volume increased by about 70% compared to 2020. Last year, it expanded its influence in this area by acquiring the performance marketing company Deeperple and is reviewing follow-up M&A for new digital businesses such as social platforms and ad tech. Synergies through complementary collaboration with existing overseas subsidiaries and foreign affiliates are also planned. Innocean currently operates local subsidiaries in over 30 countries and has strengthened global production capabilities through the acquisition of the Welcome Group in 2019, including Welcome, The Lab, and Dipping Source.

Lee Yong-woo, CEO of Innocean, said, "This investment will be an opportunity to digitally transform the existing creative ecosystem of advertising production," adding, "Through aggressive investment in VFX specialized companies, we will expand communication opportunities with consumers in the digital world and quickly adopt evolving digital technologies into communication activities, evolving from a traditional advertising agency into a global content leading company."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.