IMM invests in subtitling unicorn company Iyuno-SDI

Iyuno-SDI Group founder and CEO David Lee / Courtesy of Iyuno-SDI Group

By Anna J. Park

With IMM Investment's decision to inject about 140 billion won ($117 million) into Iyuno-SDI Group, the global media company with an expertise in providing subtitles, captions and dubbing services has solidified its unicorn status with an estimated corporate value of over 1 trillion won.

According to the investment banking industry this week, IMM signed a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) recently with the media company.

Founder and CEO Lee Hyon-moo, also known as David Lee, holds the largest portion of the company shares, followed by Stockholm-headquartered Altor Equity Partners and SoftBank Vision Fund. With IMM's investment this round, it is set to become the fourth-largest shareholder of the company.

Iyuno-SDI received an investment of some 180 billion won from SoftBank Vision Fund last April, to reach a corporate valuation of 600 billion won, and the firm's value has nearly doubled in just nine months. SoftBank injected 24 billion won in 2018 as well.

Founded in Seoul in 2002, the company has grown fast, becoming the largest media localization company in Asia by 2018. It provides full end-to-end media and language services for top-tier video streaming services, broadcasters and content creators in over 80 languages. The company holds the largest market share of the global subtitling and captioning market, at about 15 percent.

The company's valuation has been attributed to its successful acquisition last year of SDI Media, a U.S.-based top leader in the industry. In 2019, the company merged with BTI Studios, Europe's largest media localization company. Iyuno-SDI is aiming for an IPO on Nasdaq next year.