Category
- Band stories
Written by
Karl Shin (CEO)
Date
Empty
The value of investing in music IP aggregation was already being actively explored and validated overseas, and many people in the industry were well aware of its effectiveness. Quite a few had already tried it themselves. This was also an area of great interest for us at Base.
But whenever I tried to make a move, there was always 'one thing' missing or a lingering sense of uncertainty. Then, by pure chance, I met someone. He was someone with a grand vision and dream for the content industry, including the music IP business, and at that moment I realized what I had always felt was lacking whenever I considered investing in the music IP sector. It was a visionary and capable “founder.” So, even before there was a company, any music IP, or even a team, my conversations with CEO Lee Jang-won began.
Back then, I met with many people to create a music IP fund—which was a rather unfamiliar concept at the time—and those who believed in the dream became our investors. On top of that, we were given the opportunity to acquire KNC Music, a music IP holding company I'd been paying attention to since 2018. Even though it wasn't easy, we were able to proceed all the way to a buyout together. Despite not knowing much, we established an SPC and leveraged acquisition financing to form the fund and carry out the investment and acquisition.
Even reaching that point was lightning-fast, but the market response and the growth of the Beyond Music team under CEO Lee Jang-won were even faster. The moment the deal to acquire KNC Music closed, we received strong offers from several PEs, and with reliable allies, an additional follow-up investment of 200 billion won was executed just 7 months after our investment. As a result, our time as the company’s largest shareholder lasted less than seven months, but I’m only grateful to have even stronger allies now.
This might sound a bit random, but it really made me reflect on human productivity. Sometimes it's hard to believe that so much could happen in just one year, but looking back, it all stemmed from a founder with clear vision and intense passion. It makes me think that the 'one thing' I mentioned before might have been everything. The Beyond Music team, who accomplished all this in just a year, probably see it as only the beginning. We’ll do our best to keep in step with them by supporting in our own way as a VC, without being in the way.
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