Category: Business
China’s JoyMe, Kee Ever to set up US$360 million M&A fund to acquire oversea video game companies
JoyMe Group, a Beijing-based internet technology company has formed a strategic alliance with Kee Ever Bright Decorative Technology Co., Ltd., a Jiangsu province-based online video game company to launch a RMB3 billion (about US$360 million) video game M&A fund.
The first phase of the fund, tentatively set at RMB1 billion (about US$140 million) will focus on the investment of video games distribution, production, development, eSports, and other industries which lie in line with the development strategy of the two investment partners.
In 2016, the video game market in China was estimated to worth RMB165 billion (about US$24 billion), in addition to an emerging trend in merger and acquisition, recording a total of US$28 billion transaction value in the same year. This can be seen looking at Tencent Holdings Ltd’s US$8.6 billion acquisition of Finland-based mobile game development company Supercell and Youzu Interactive’s €80 million acquisition of German game business Bigpoint, among some.
“The global video games industry has a history of over 50 years, and China’s gaming market has its own three eras whereby, in the beginning, companies like Sdo and The9 only aim to become the proxy of a good product. Later, a new batch of companies emerged which set research and development at its core. Today, the situation has transitioned to that of Tencent and Netease, whereby internationalisation becomes the driving force of most gaming companies,” said Chen Yang, the CEO and Group Chairman of JoyMe.
“Hence, it is time for us to launch a buyout fund targeting the international market. As comparing China to other countries, we are lacking in terms of technology and creativity although China’s game industry market has an edge in its user base, paying capacity as well as commercial capacity of Chinese companies which can leverage global attention. In this case, we intend to acquire the best foreign products and talents back to China,” said Chen Yang.
Founded in 2011 by Chen Yang, a former lead producer at U.S.-based Electronic Arts Inc. The company previously raised a RMB130 million (about US$18 million) series B round from Fosun Kinzon Capital and Bluerun Ventures. It later raised an undisclosed amount of series C round from online video platform Youku Tudou and Beijing-based game developer Ourpalm.
Prior to the establishment of investment funds, the Group has formed a North American branch and which was joined by former Lucas Entertainment CEO Jack Sorensen and other senior players. In this retrospect, Chen Yang said that compared to other teams, their team’s advantage lies in understanding the North American market, “our team in the international large-scale game companies who have a lot of executives, including myself is the case.”
Speaking on the future of the group for the game industry layout, Chen Yang said, “We will not acquire studios at their early stages, as though their game content development may be creative, at the same time, there are still many uncertainties. Moreover, this fund sets out to be an M&A fund instead of being a VC, hence game companies model which has not been proven in the market will not be included in our investment scope.”
By Vivian Foo, Next Unicorn
Japanese peer-to-peer marketplace app Mercari to acquire Asia-focused auction site Smaoku
Mercari Inc., the first Japanese startup to be valued at more than US$1 billion, announced on February 17 that it has acquired Zawatt, the startup running Japan-based online auction site catering brand goods Smaoku.
Financial details of the transaction were not revealed but the deal will take effect as of February 27. Upon the acquisition, Zawatt co-founder and CEO Daisaku Harada will join Mercari while Smaoku will continue its operations run by the current staff.
Short for smart auction, Smaoku allows users to interact with other users to buy and sell authentic second-hand items. Last May, English and traditional Chinese interfaces were made available in addition to the original Japanese platform, aiming to serve U.S., Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Singaporean buyers.
In addition to Smaoku, Zawatt since its inception in 2011 has also released several web services including WebScope, a social list bulletin board and Ohako, a karaoke companion finder. The company launched Smaoku in October 2013 and won KDDI Mugen Labo’s 5th batch demo day for its real-time auction concept which makes users feel as if they are at a real auction site when buying items online.
In 2015, Zawatt raised 250 million yen (US$ 2 million) from IMJ Investment Partners along with China’s SIG Asia Investments and its partner VC firm MS Capital of Japan which are among some of the investors who will exit with this merger.
Mercari, on the other hand, is a Japanese peer-to-peer marketplace app that is gaining popularity in the U.S. as an alternative to Amazon or eBay. It has claimed the title of Japan’s first pre-IPO startup unicorn after raising 8.4 billion yen (about US$75 million) in its first Series D which brings its valuation of over US$1 billion.
Speaking on the acquisition, Daisaku Harada said, “Mercari’s vision of creating a worldwide marketplace that creates new values for pre-loved items is exactly consistent with the aim of Smaoku. With this M&A, we will work towards further development and expansion of the C2C business in the luxury good genre which has a high demand worldwide.”
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
COCLEAN Technology secures US$2.9 million series A round led by ZhenFund
COCLEAN Technology – a developer of indoor air purification systems has recently announced a 20 million yuan (about US$2.9 million) series A round of investment led by Zhen Fund.
Speaking on the investment, the Founder of Zhen Fund, Xu Xiaoping said, “COCLEAN’s air purification technology does not require any supply and is quite promising which is why we are supporting COCLEAN.”
This financing round also follows the six-months seed and angel financing round in 2015 which has managed to raise an amount close to 10 million yuan (about US$1.45 million).
Founded in February 2015, COCLEAN Technology with a registered capital of 242 million yuan (about US$35 million) focuses on the R&D of an air purifier, air ioniser, car air purifier, and other similar products. Its flagship product is the COCLEAN portable air purification device which has sold tens of thousands of units since its launch.
In 2016, the company also initiated a revolutionary COCLEAN intelligent air purification system for schools and other public places to provide air purification, monitoring, and analysis of the overall solution, making indoor air purification systems more cost=effective and energy efficient. At present, the system covers dozens of schools including Tsinghua University and nearly 100,000 square meters of public space.
Commenting on the fundraising, COCLEAN Technology Founder and CEO Zhao Fei said, “Air quality has become one of the important factors affecting our people’s happiness, how to provide personal purification, micro-environmental monitoring, and data analysis which forms the core loop solutions to improve the living environment are our top priority, therefore we are determined to develop COCLEAN.”
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Philippines-based digital payments startup Ayannah to secure US$5 million by April 2017
Ayannah, a digital payments startup based in the Philipines, is looking forward to securing at least US$5 million in its next financing round which is said to be completed by April 2017.
“We are in the middle of raising our next round. It was upsized to US$5 million because of a surge in investor interest. We aim to close by April 2017,” said Ayannah’s Founder and CEO Mikko Perez.
Founded in 2008, the financial technology firm provides digital commerce and payment services to migrants and overseas workers, especially those which are unbanked or underbanked via the operations of two main platforms – Sendah and Sendah Direct.
Sendah is a B2C platform that allows overseas Filipinos to send mobile top-ups, electronic vouchers as well as physical goods. While Sendah Direct is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that partners with brick-and-mortar retailers to offer services like mobile top-ups, online game credits, and domestic remittance.
“We are not trying to eliminate money transfers or remittances but we are giving migrants more options on how to support their beneficiaries in their home countries without necessarily infringing on the value proposition of money transfer operators,” Perez said.
In December 2015, Ayannah has raised US$1 million as part of its series A round led by Silicon Valley VC 500 Startups and Singapore-based fintech VC Life.SREDA, London-based fintech VC Blue Compass, and other investors.
The company also claims that its remittance business took off in the second half of 2016 where its revenue volume grew by 202x from July 2014 to December 2016.
Ayannah will use the newly raised capital to further grow its remittance business and launch their microinsurance and credit scoring business, as it plans to go for a public listing by late 2018.
“Our challenge,” said Perez, “is hiring more developers and channel sales people to ramp up product development and revenues. We are integrating with several partners all at the same time and we need to hire more energies just to work through the pipeline.”
“But I do think 2017 is the breakout year for Ayannah,” Perez adds. “We have prepared the foundation over the past three years and we are poised for the period of sustained growth.”
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Japanese mobile trading brokerage, One Tap Buy secures US$13.3 million to accelerate system development
One Tap Buy, previously known as MyBanker has announced on 14 February that it has fundraised 1.5 billion yen (about US$13.3 million) from Mizuho Securities, existing investors Mizuho Capital, and Mobile Internet Capital.
This financing round follows a previous 1 billion yen funding from Softbank back in July 2016. Prior to that, the firm also raised an undisclosed sum from Mobile Internet Capital, DBJ Capital, and Mitsui Life Insurance’s Sansei Capital, as well as other undisclosed VC firms in June 2015.
Founded in October 2013, One Tap Buy develops a mobile application of the same name that specifically helps people manage their savings and investments more easily. The mobile application also facilitates the trade stocks of well-known brands and companies in units of 1000 yen.
One Tap Buy also just participated in the startup battle of TechCrunch Tokyo in 2015, winning the judges’ special prize and the AWS prize. After a one-year closed beta period, it was officially launched in June 2016, where it has acquired over 150,000 downloads o date, especially from users in their 20s and 30s, whereby 70 percent of them are inexperienced.
Additionally, the app also allows users to easily choose then buy US-listed stocks and Japanese exchange-traded funds rather than using conventional trading platforms.
With the latest capital raised, the company plans to accelerate the system development efforts for new services in addition to strengthening marketing efforts to increase the public awareness of the service.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media