Line, the popular Japanese messaging service, has partnered with a New York venture capital firm as it seeks a greater presence in the United States.
The venture capital firm Collaborative Fund has formed a joint investment vehicle with Line to buy small stakes in American start-ups, according to Craig Shapiro, the venture firm’s chief executive. The joint fund, with under $10 million in capital, will focus on start-ups in the earliest stages of their development.
The partnership, which had not previously been disclosed, is the latest sign of Line’s ambitions to expand beyond its home market and to diversify its business beyond messaging.
Line, with a substantial following in Japan and more than 430 million users globally, is considering an initial public offering in Tokyo. Its parent, the Naver Corporation of South Korea, which announced the I.P.O. filing this week, said it might list the messaging service in Japan or the United States, or possibly in both countries.
Line has found the United States market difficult to crack, dialing back a marketing effort last year. The dominance of Facebook and Twitter, not to mention the rise of other messaging services like Snapchat and WhatsApp, pose a challenge for new entrants, though Line distinguishes itself from rivals by offering an array of virtual stickers and other paid content.
Another Japanese company, the telecommunications giant SoftBank, invests in start-ups through an American venture capital fund, SoftBank Capital.
By investing in start-ups through the Collaborative Fund partnership, Line could forge relationships with new companies and, if the stars align, potentially make acquisitions, Mr. Shapiro said.
Already, Line has put a unique spin on traditional messaging, letting its users communicate through cartoon stickers. It also offers social games and even weather forecasts.
“It’s much more of a media-centric company,” Mr. Shapiro said. “Messaging is just the distribution or the delivery mechanism.”
A spokeswoman for Line said the company’s executives were not available to comment.
Mr. Shapiro, a former president of the media company Good, founded Collaborative Fund in 2010 after making personal investments in start-ups. The list of companies he has invested in includes Kickstarter, the fund-raising platform for creative projects, and Lyft, a car summoning service.
The investors in Collaborative Fund are largely individuals, including prominent technology figures, like Chad Hurley, a co-founder of YouTube, and even the musician Pharrell Williams.
Mr. Shapiro said he was introduced to Line through Kim Jung-Ju, the founder of Nexon, an online games company, who is an investor in Collaborative Fund. He said the partnership would help the venture capital firm gain an entry to Asia.
The companies the new fund invests in will probably fit with the overall thesis of Collaborative Fund, which Mr. Shapiro described as “new applications allowing people to collaborate.”