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UAE Investment Firm UCI Invests in Developer KLab

Japanese game developer KLab Inc. announced last Friday that the company has entered into a capital and business alliance with Ultimate Classic Investment (UCI), a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based investment firm whose investors include members of the UAE royal family. UCI has acquired shares of KLab through third party allotment.

In a supplemental document, KLab outlined that UCI now owns 79.1% of the company. The company plans to leverage its current 5.1 billion yen (about US$32 million) in capital mostly on acquiring Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets, using 70% of the capital (3.6 billion yen, or about US$23 million) for this purpose, with only 20% (1 billion yen, or about US$6.41 million) for planning, developing, and managing games, and 10% (500 million yen, or about US$3.20 million) for developing new business.

In addition, UCI has proposed that H.H. Sheikh Salem Khaled Humaid Mohamed Al Qasimi, a member of the royal family of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, serve as advisor to KLab.

KLab is known for games such as Love Live! School Idol Festival, Bleach: Brave Souls, and Captain Tsubasa: Dream Team. One of KLab's most notorious recent launches include the Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 Miracle Live! smartphone game, which launched in Japan in April 2023, and ended service in March 2024. The global version launched in February 2024, but ended service just three months later in May 2024 (in fact, KLab announced the global version's end of service date alongside the announcement of its launch date).

Earlier this year on May 15, KLab asked 100 employees to accept voluntary redundancy with severance packages in a large-scale downsizing of the company.

Source: KLab (link 2, link 3), gamebiz via Hachima Kikō