Andy Ku

Andy Ku is a game and metaverse developer, mobile gaming pioneer and tech entrepreneur, founder of software companies BlueArk, Nurien Software and, more recently, AlTAVA group.

Andy holds a BS in Architecture from Cornell University and also an MBA from Harvard Business School. Currently, Andy holds the position of CEO of ALTAVA Group, a Singapore-based luxury fashion metaverse that enables users to discover, interact, and express themselves through a hi-fidelity avatar. The Company operates WOY (World of You), a metaverse that provides Omni-platform experiential solutions which seamlessly connect consumers to the real-world and virtual world for high-end luxury brands and discerning partners. The company has successful collaborations with luxury brands including Thom Browne, Prada, and Balmain.

After he finished his studies, Andy has been involved in startups since 2002, working with some of the world’s most recognisable names in media and gaming. Andy has been a pioneer in social gaming, having created MStar, a 3D-avatar-based fashion app.

He also founded BlueArk in 2014 to develop and publish games and digital education platforms by converting famous IP such as SpongeBob, Dora the Explorer, Toonix, and American Idol into digital forms. working with Viacom, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, XIX Entertainment, BlueArk Global launched these games and platforms in more than 137 countries.

Being involved in gaming companies throughout his career, he became CEO of Netmarble Corp. a mobile gaming company, in 2011. Established in Korea in 2000, Netmarble is a mobile game company in Asia and consistently ranks as a top mobile developer and publisher worldwide. As CEO of the company, Andy was involved in the company that developed games like MARVEL Future Fight, Seven Knights, Raven (Evilbane in U.S.), and Everybody’s Marble, among others.

In the beginning of his career, Andy founded Nurien Software in 2007, a social networking and online gaming company that developed platforms for virtual social networks and, prior to that, he took the role of CEO ASIA of Realtime Worlds, a UK based software company that develops action games and community games.
 

Andy has 20 years of game experience from working with top global IP holders - representing their world-famous IPs into the game worlds: SpongeBob, Dora the Explorer from Nickelodeon Viacom, Toonix from Cartoon Network, Creator of Grand Theft Auto, Simon Fuller (American Idol).

Andy Ku is the Founder and CEO of Altava Group, a Singapore-based company with offices in Seoul, Tokyo, London, and Paris that aims to bring brands into the metaverse through their virtual platforms and access to others.

Andy has been involved in startups since 2002, working with some of the world’s most recognizable names in media and gaming. Andy has been a pioneer in social gaming, having created MStar, a 3D-avatar-based fashion app. Andy launched ALTAVA Group to bring brands into the metaverse offering them virtual spaces to share stories. A place where they can feature their digitized collections in a branded and fully customizable environment.

In a recent interview with Dinis Guarda, he said:

“Nurien Software was an online gaming company with an online game called M-Star. It's still running and operating. That happened to be the first fashion-based game, where the business model for that particular game was selling the virtual fashion that we had created. It was basically a copy paste from the internet and we were selling the virtual fashion to our member users. This is when I realised that the big potential opportunity in fashion will be in games and virtual worlds. That became the foundation of Altava of today.”

In 2014, Andy founded BlueArk, working with Viacom, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, XIX Entertainment to develop and publish games and digital education platforms by converting famous IP such as SpongeBob, Dora the Explorer, Toonix, and American Idol into digital forms. BlueArk Global launched these games and platforms in more than 137 countries.
 

A serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years of gaming experience, Andy was drawn towards online gaming technology during its early years. 

In a recent interview with Dinis Guarda, he said:

“It's always more fun if you play with other players, instead of you playing by yourself, and just the fact that you can play with a lot of people at the same time. I thought that it could be the next game changer.”

Andy founded Altava Group, luxury fashion metaverse company, in 2018. The company connects the Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 worlds, bridging the real world with the virtual one. 

Sharing his vision of the project, he said:

“We are looking forward towards a far-fetched marketplace in the Web 3.0. The next few years will not be the traditional eCommerce-driven models, which relies heavily on transactions only. We are currently at the crossroad of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, but it will be the new hybrid model along the road, as Web 2.0 will still be very much relevant.”