{"id":54724,"date":"2025-12-09T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=54724"},"modified":"2025-12-09T15:52:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:52:32","slug":"struggling-japanese-gacha-game-company-secures-about-32-7-million-through-arab-investment-firm-plans-to-invest-in-new-games-crypto-and-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/struggling-japanese-gacha-game-company-secures-about-32-7-million-through-arab-investment-firm-plans-to-invest-in-new-games-crypto-and-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling Japanese gacha game company secures about $32.7 million through Arab investment firm, plans to invest in new games, crypto and gold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Japanese mobile game developer <strong>KLab<\/strong> (known for Bleach Brave Souls and Captain Tsubasa: Dream Team) announced on December 5 that it will raise roughly 5.1 billion yen (over $32.7 million USD) through a private placement (selling stock shares directly to chosen investors). As a result, a UAE-based investment firm has become the company\u2019s largest shareholder.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the enduring success of Bleach Brave Souls, KLab has in recent years seen deteriorating performance, with titles like Love Live! School Idol Festival being shut down; and the delay of EA Sports FC Tactical causing financial losses for the company. To improve its situation, the developer attempted to downsize its workforce earlier this year <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-gacha-game-studio-asks-100-full-time-employees-to-quit-in-large-scale-downsizing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">through voluntary redundancies<\/a>, but was <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-gacha-game-developer-asks-100-employees-to-resign-voluntarily-only-47-accept\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">only able to downsize by 47 employees<\/a>, less than half of its target.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dragon-quest-smash-grow-klab-20251208-370115-header.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-54727\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dragon-quest-smash-grow-klab-20251208-370115-header.webp 1600w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dragon-quest-smash-grow-klab-20251208-370115-header-380x214.webp 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dragon-quest-smash-grow-klab-20251208-370115-header-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/dragon-quest-smash-grow-klab-20251208-370115-header-1536x864.webp 1536w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, KLab has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.klab.com\/jp\/ir\/ir-news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a> a capital and business partnership with UAE investment firm Ultimate Classic Investment, as well as Japanese company Sun Asterisk, which provides IT and creative services. KLab also resolved at its December 5 board meeting to issue new shares via third-party allotment to these two firms along with Sixth Sense Holdings and JT Financial, and to issue its 23rd series of stock acquisition rights to Ultimate Classic Investment and JT Financial. Through these issuances, the company expects to raise 5,111,547,500 yen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for how the money will be used, between December 2025 and December 2026, about 1 billion yen will go to designing, developing, and operating new large-scale mobile online games, including Square Enix\u2019s roguelite RPG <a href=\"https:\/\/smashgrow.dragonquest.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dragon Quest Smash\/Grow<\/a> and a new My Hero Academia Game. About 500 million yen will be spent on new business development; and 3.6 billion yen (over $23 million USD) will be used to purchase Bitcoin and gold (including ETFs).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u201cDRAGON QUEST Smash\/Grow\u201d Teaser Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6U3mPefOfho?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Following this investment, KLab\u2019s shareholder structure has undergone big changes, with UAE-based Ultimate Classic Investment now holding 23.15% of shares and becoming the largest stakeholder. As part of the partnership, KLab plans to appoint Sheikh Salem Khaled Humaid Mohamed Al Qasimi \u2013 royalty of the UAE Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah \u2013 as an advisor.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>KLab\u2019s CEO Tetsuya Sanada reflected in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tetsuya.sanada\/posts\/pfbid02gC81siDaNWS56vdaZkp8eKZqkjyiBVvpq7VJBVuKs9eXTu3AtjhDwUtmFKSFp7Eyl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook post<\/a> that when he was reinstated in March this year, the company\u2019s remaining cash-on-hand was nearly gone, and he was gripped by fear that it might not survive until the announcement of its next game. Even after redundancies, downsizing office space to less than half its previous size, and selling off assets, KLab was facing a cash shortage. He continued searching for an investor willing to take a long-term position, which ultimately led to this partnership. \u201cI finally feel liberated from the overwhelming anxiety. This mix of fear and accomplishment is a thrill only startup CEOs know. Hopefully this will be the last time though (lol),\u201d he commented.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-gacha-game-industry-in-a-sinking-titanic-phase-developer-says-switching-to-console-game-development-not-an-easy-solution-for-many\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Japan\u2019s gacha game industry in a \u201csinking Titanic-phase,\u201d developer says. Switching to console game development not an easy solution for many\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the CEO, KLab was on the brink of running out of cash-on-hand prior to the alliances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":54730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[261,17],"class_list":["post-54724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-financial-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Struggling Japanese gacha game company secures about $32.7 million through Arab investment firm, plans to invest in new games, crypto and gold - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Japanese gacha mobile game developer KLab been saved from &quot;running out of cash&quot; through new capital alliances.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/struggling-japanese-gacha-game-company-secures-about-32-7-million-through-arab-investment-firm-plans-to-invest-in-new-games-crypto-and-gold\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Struggling Japanese gacha game company secures about $32.7 million through Arab investment firm, plans to invest in new games, crypto and gold - 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Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54724"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54731,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54724\/revisions\/54731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}