March 22, 2023

KDDI Corporation

On March 22, 2023, KDDI invested in Sorajima Inc. (Headquarters: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; Co-CEOs: Kojuro Hagihara and Juro Maeda; hereinafter "Sorajima"), which is engaged in the planning and production of webtoons (vertical full-color smartphone manga), through KDDI Open Innovation Fund III (operated by Global Brain Corporation; hereinafter "KOIF III"), which aims to incubate new business co-creations with promising venture startups.

As an entertainment startup, Sorajima operates a webtoon studio engaged in the planning and production of original works, and also develops and manages the "cosmic" manga app featuring its own content.
Since launching its webtoon business in August 2021, Sorajima has earned high evaluations in manga app rankings in Japan and abroad. In 2022, the company produced the largest number of works on an annual basis (26 works released) in Japan, among Japanese companies that handle all stages of production for original works.

Through this investment, KDDI will support the provision of webtoons to "au Book Pass" and the expansion of original Sorajima webtoons linked to "au Smart Pass Premium," as well as promote the development of new businesses that utilize the content as intellectual property, including deployment on other platforms.

As "the company that customers feel closest to," KDDI will continue to promote business co-creation through investment in promising startup companies, and create new business models together with customers and partners.

MUGENLABO Magazine
Producer and Distributor of Original Webtoons - Sorajima (in Japanese only)

(Reference)

• ■Original manga app "cosmic"

  cosmic is a manga app developed by Sorajima Inc., a webtoon (vertical full-color manga) production studio. Following its September 2022 launch in Japan, the app was released in the US in January 2023.

  cosmic

• ■Overview of Sorajima

  • (1)

    Company name: Sorajima Inc.

  • (2)

    Headquarters: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo

  • (3)

    Date founded: February 2019

  • (4)

    Business activities: Production of original webtoons and manga app

  • (5)

    Co-CEOs: Kojuro Hagihara and Juro Maeda

  • (6)

    • URL:

      https://sorajima.jp/ (in Japanese only)

• ■About KDDI Open Innovation Fund

  KDDI Open Innovation Fund is a corporate venture fund that supports a broad range of venture companies. The currently active KDDI Open Innovation Fund III focuses on the areas of AI, IoT, data marketing, fintech, B2B SaaS, and entertainment with a total operating fund of 20 billion yen.