South Korea's top mobile messenger operator Daum Kakao said Monday it plans to invest 100 billion won (US$90.8 million) to start a new company that will seek out promising venture companies in and out of the country.

The company said its board of directors approved the tentatively-named K Venture Group by Jan. 23, 2015, to find new business opportunities in line with its push to lessen its dependency on the conventional free messenger service for growth.

"K Venture Group will find new sources of growth for Daum Kakao, and seek active investment and acquisition both at home and abroad, bolstering its global competitiveness in the mobile platform market," the company said in a news release.

"The investment will not be just temporal. We will make long-term investment on competitive ventures that has potentials at the domestic and global markets," it added.

Daum Kakao's flagship messenger service Kakao Talk commands 37 million local users in the country of 50 million people. The company was created in October out of a merger between Kakao Corp. and portal service Daum Communications Corp.

Since then, Daum Kakao has been enlarging its portfolio. It launched BankWalletKakao in November, a service that allows users to transmit cash, and is scheduled to start a taxi service app in the first half of 2015. (Yonhap)