K-Pop Label MODHAUS Nets $15 Million Investment Before Boy Band Idntt
South Korea's largest venture capital firm IMM Investment led this Series B funding round for MODHAUS. Three of Korea's other Top 10 VCs in Intervest, Smilegate Investment and LB Investment all joined too, with the former notable for being an early investor in HYBE. Meanwhile, existing investors such as Hedge Fund company Laguna Investment, the U.S.-based content venture capital firm Sfermion (who also recently backed U.S. K-pop company TITAN CONTENTS) and noted music NFT investor Cooper Turley followed up with additional backing.
The funding is less about a traditional label model and more about a bet on a fan and platform-first strategy. Investors point to MODHAUS's Cosmo ecosystem — a direct-to-consumer fandom platform where fans vote on music releases, creative concepts and group units to influence the artists' content — as a scalable differentiator that turns fan armies into active partners in IP creation. To date, Cosmo reports accumulating roughly 350,000 users with about 150,000 monthly active users. Cosmo has also issued more than 10 million of its platform-exclusive digital photocards (what the company calls 'Objekts') representing its unique twist on K-pop fan behavior of buying multiple copies of album packages to collect more photocards.
Since MODHAUS' launch in December 2021, the company has continuously made concrete traction with ultra-ambitious projects. tripleS's full, 24-member group album, ASSEMBLE25, was a commercial milestone for the company this spring with MODHAUS reporting 510,00 records sold in its first week for the group's fastest-selling release yet. Meanwhile, ARTMS has likewise broadened MODHAUS' global footprint since its 2024 debut with two world tours taking the quintet across Asia, North and South America, Europe and Australia.
The timing of the capital raise comes just as MODHAUS is preparing to debut its first boy band idntt, a 24-member group operating on the same fan-participation principles of tripleS and ARTMS via Cosmo. The first 'unit' of idntt, named unevermet, consisting of seven members, will enter the K-pop industry on Monday, August 11, with a seven-track EP containing three singles 'BOYtude,' 'Storm' or 'You Never Met' to be voted on by fans and supporters as the album's 'super title song.' (At press time, three hours before the group's official debut, 'You Never Met' was the group's most-viewed music video teaser among the three.)
What Will MODHAUS Do With Its New Investments?
Jaden Jeong, CEO of MODHAUS and a longtime respected K-pop producer, shared in a press release that the Cosmo platform will expand more aggressively into international markets to reach its artists' global fandoms. Jeong described the latest company's creative ecosystem as 'a breakthrough for the global 'fandustry,' or fan + industry beyond just K-pop,' promising that its latest investments will 'refine that system further and take it to the next level.'
Expanding more into what global projects fans can look forward to, Jeong tells Forbes exclusively that 'MODHAUS will continue to grow as a label specializing in large-member groups.'
'Having started in Korea, we are also preparing large-member groups in Japan and have begun discussions with the greater China region as well,' he adds. 'While our existing teams and new teams do not share a unified universe, launching new MODHAUS idols in various global markets allows us to introduce Cosmo in ways that match each region's unique color. This means that artists who share the DNA of MODHAUS can connect with fans around the world.'
When asked if these latest investments will include additional international activities and opportunities for its artists, MODHAUS co-founder and vice president Joseph Baek shared additional insight.
'With this new investment, MODHAUS has secured a stronger financial foundation to pursue more aggressive global expansion,' Baek tells Forbes. 'ARTMS already has a large international fanbase and through the recent 'A Live 25' shows, the full 24-member lineup of tripleS met their Asian fans for the first time. Additionally, idntt is set to complete its 24-member lineup by the first half of next year and plans to launch large-scale promotions in partnership with a major global distributor. At such a crucial moment, we are pleased that this new investment will empower all our artists to push forward with greater momentum and scalability.'
Notably, ARTMS' releases are distributed in the U.S. by Sony Music's independent arm The Orchard, bringing both the group's 2024 full-length album DALL and 2025 Club Icarus EP to major U.S. retailers and helping them land on Billboard's World Albums chart.
Before MODHAUS' Series B investment round, its initial seed round was led by blockchain-specialized investment firm Hashed, with major Korean-entertainment players like Naver D2SF, CJ Investment and SM Culture Partners also joining as major investors. In July earlier this year, Jaden Jeong told Forbes that the company was actively hiring and 'needs more staff' beyond its 120 employees, hoping to find 'many people who are crazy about K-pop.'
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