MUNTO, an interest-based community platform in Korea, has raised approximately US$ 3.9 million in Series A funding round, bringing its total investments to US$ 5.9 million. 

New investors have joined the round including Z Venture Capital (ZVC) and Industrial Bank of Korea with existing investors, IMM Investment, Daekyo Investment, and Bon Angels Venture Partners. ZVC is a corporate venture capital (CVC) of Z Holdings, whose subsidiaries includes global mobile platform LINE and Yahoo Japan. 

MUNTO is an interest-based community platform that helps people to connect better online and meet in-person based on their interests. MUNTO offers various types of communities including ▲ “Socialing”, one-time hangouts to make new friends easily based on interests, ▲ “Club”, online communities where you can stay in touch with long-term connections that share the same interests, and ▲ “Lounge”, a personalized news feed that gathers each of your interests generated from all over the app. 

MUNTO is growing rapidly focusing on its mission to “enrich people’s everyday life by connecting people with mutual interests.” In particular, within 25 months from its launch in January 2021, MUNTO has approximately 180,000 cumulative communities opened, 100,000 cumulative feed uploads, and 520,000 cumulative members. Growing more than 500 times compared to its initial launch, MUNTO has demonstrated the high growth potential of interest-based community platforms. 

“Millennials and Generation Z are used to online relationships, but they also want to be connected in person. They are not only content consumers but also creators," said Jimin Seo from ZVC, who participated in the new investment. "The various in-app services provided by MUNTO are expected to play a pivotal role in helping like-minded people stay connected online or meet in-person and create their own content."

"With the development of information technology, personal tastes have become more fragmented, and the need for online and in-person communities based on personal interests is higher than ever," said Miri Lee, CEO of MUNTO. "In line with this change in lifestyle, we will leap forward to provide a super service that enables all activities based on interest, from socializing to information sharing and marketplaces."

With this funding, MUNTO will continue to build on its talent acquisition and service enhancements to become the No.1 interest-based super service by the end of 2024.