Dentsu Ventures Invests in emole, Developer and Provider of the Short Drama App "BUMP"
Apr 24, 2025
- IR-Voluntary Disclosure
- Management
- Japan
Dentsu Group Inc. (Tokyo: 4324; ISIN: JP3551520004; President & Global CEO: Hiroshi Igarashi; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 74,609.81 million yen; hereinafter referred to as "the Company") announced that Dentsu Ventures Fund II (hereinafter "Dentsu Ventures"), the Company's corporate venture capital fund, has made an investment in emole Inc. (headquarters; Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan; Naomichi Sawamura, CEO; hereinafter "emole"), the developer and provider of the pay-per-view short drama application “BUMP.”
BUMP was released in December 2022, and emole has been producing and distributing numerous short dramas on the application since. Amid the rapidly expanding market for short dramas with a length of only a few minutes per episode(*), specifically designed for viewing on smartphones, BUMP has surpassed 1.9 million cumulative downloads in just over two years since its release. Looking ahead, emole plans to actively continue producing short dramas in 2025 and beyond, both in-house and through collaboration with outside content providers. With the funds raised, emole plans to invest aggressively in building up a system for the further creation of short dramas and improving the features of the application.
Going forward, Dentsu Ventures will support emole as it focuses on delivering even more compelling short drama series to users by utilizing the capabilities of Dentsu group.
The following is an overview of emole and Dentsu Ventures.
Profile of emole
| Company Name: | emole Inc. |
| Location: | Meguro-Ku, Tokyo, Japan |
| Year of Establishment: | 2018 |
| Representative: | Naomichi Sawamura, CEO |
| Line of Business: | Development and distribution of the short drama app "BUMP" |
| URL | https://emole.co.jp/ (JPN Only) |
Brand Logo
Profile of Dentsu Ventures Fund II
| Name: | Dentsu Ventures Fund II |
| Total fund capital: | 10 billion yen |
| Year of Establishment: | 2021 |
| Period of operation: | 10-year period from April 2021 until March 2031 |
| Investment regions: | Global investments both within and outside Japan |
| Investment stages: | Wide range of stages from seed-stage investments through to later-stage investments |
| URL: | https://dentsu-v.com/en/ |
*The short drama market, which expanded globally in the summer of 2023, has continued to grow significantly both domestically and internationally since 2024, and according to a market research report released in April 2024 (by YH Research), it is predicted to expand to 8.7 trillion yen by 2029.
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Contacts:
Media Inquiries:
Jumpei Kojima
Deputy Global Chief Communications Officer
Dentsu Group Inc.
Email：group-cc@dentsu.com
