BREAK&COMPANY, a leading South Korean trading card authentication service under the brand ‘Brg’, recently secured additional Pre-Series A funding. This latest investment brings the total capital raised by the company to over KRW 10 billion, including both seed investments and this round. The funding round was led by GS Ventures and Sema Investment, motivated by BREAK&COMPANY’s deep expertise in trading cards, its pioneering role in the domestic market, growth potential, and the promising prospects for success in the broader Asian market.

The newly acquired funds will be used by BREAK&COMPANY to forge collaborations on card productions with popular local sports and entertainment IPs and to facilitate the international expansion of their Brg Grading service.

Over the past year, BREAK&COMPANY has broadened its business scope in trading card planning and distribution, starting with the K League and KBO. Cards like the “2023 K League Panini Prizm” and “SCC Legend National Treasure-KBO”, featuring Korean sports legends such as Hong Myung-bo and Sun Dong-yol, have garnered significant popularity and enthusiastic support from local collectors.

The K League Panini Prizm, in particular, was a standout success, capturing over 40% of all merchandise sales at last December’s K League 40th Anniversary event held at Times Square.

Leveraging this success, BREAK&COMPANY this year launched the exclusive Topclass 2024 Korea Edition, featuring popular Korean national players such as Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in, and Kim Min-jae. The Topclass 2024 Korea Edition was a hit, with all 10,000 packs selling out at the recent Play KFA event in Sangam, demonstrating the growing mainstream appeal of card collecting.

Moreover, BREAK&COMPANY is planning to secure and distribute trading cards based on globally popular Korean IPs, including K-Pop and K-Drama, aiming to attract fans from various sectors to the trading card fandom and to strengthen its influence in the trading card market across Asia, including Korea.

Yongseok Jung, CEO of BREAK&COMPANY, commented, “The release of trading cards that resonate with the design and thematic expectations of fans has proven essential for expanding our collector base.” He further noted, “Our goal moving forward is to collaborate with various IPs to launch appealing cards that ignite collectors’ passions and enhance the value of trading cards through our grading services, thereby fostering a robust trading card fandom and ecosystem.”