South Korean entertainment platform Korai Flix will go public in the U.S. through a $3.5 billion merger with special purpose acquisition company APEX Tech Acquisition, the companies said on Wednesday.
The deal comes as SPACs, an alternative route to public markets, are making a comeback in the US after years of subdued activity.
Korai’s platform, launched in 2024, offers AI-generated short dramas and AI companion avatars to roughly 26 million users across 15 countries in Asia. Users can also use tools to create such content in various visual styles.
Microdramas, short episodic vertical videos delivered in two-minute episodes for viewing on phones, have surged in popularity worldwide. The format is cheap to produce and can be generated rapidly using artificial intelligence.
In the first half of 2026, microdramas on YouTube garnered more than 6.5 billion views, while watch time grew over 50% from a year earlier.
Korean entertainment content is also flourishing across the world following the success of K-pop, K-dramas and other Korean cultural exports.
Korai will be the latest South Korea-linked entertainment platform to go public in US. Naver-backed Webtoon Entertainment, which owns novel distribution platform Wattpad, debuted in New York in 2024 through a traditional IPO.
A SPAC is a shell company that raises capital through an initial public offering and then uses the funds to merge with or acquire a private company, taking it public without a traditional IPO.
The SPAC deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027. The combined company will be renamed Krflix Group and is expected to list on the New York Stock Exchange.
Reuters
