E27.CO – May 13 – M17 Entertainment, the company that owns Paktor and live-streaming service 17 Media, is hoping to raise US$115M in IPO. M17 made ~$90M in revenue in 2017, but operated at a loss of US$61.8M. In Q1 2018, the company made $37.9M and is operating at a loss of $26.9M. The strategy for the startup is to expand into Japan, expand content offerings, grow the number of artists on the live-streaming service and achieve profitability. Paktor has 14.6M people using its dating services, but that is split between the brands of Paktor, Goodnight and Kickoff.
Category: Kickoff
Paktor Moves Into Live-streaming Via Merger Deal
TECH CRUNCH – Apr 26 – Dating app Paktor, 'The Tinder of Southeast Asia,' is moving into live-streaming and media content after it announced a merger deal with Taiwanese startup 17 Media. Paktor currently offers four dating apps – core service Paktor and acquired apps Down, Kickoff and Goodnight – while 17 Media's runs its 17 live-streaming app, photo social network Swag and video group chat service Lit. The new entity is expecting ~$100M in annual revenue and 50M users. The list of established companies moving into streaming is nearly endless. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, Momo, and fast-growing Kuaishou among others.
by Jon Russell
See full article at Tech Crunch
Update: M17 has raised an undisclosed amount in investment from Korean VC firm KTB Network as part of a larger round, which is due to close in a few weeks.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Paktor Continues Spending Spree: Acquires Taiwan’s Goodnight
SG NEWS – Feb 8 – Founded in 2015, Goodnight matches people with common interests, after which, they can engage in a voice chat of up to seven minutes. It claims a user base of ~500K. Paktor has formed a new division called Paktor Labs, which is a social apps accelerator headed by Colin Hodge, previously CEO and co-founder of Down and Sweet (two dating apps Paktor bought last month). Down and Sweet, Goodnight and Kickoff (acquired last May) will all be part of Paktor Labs. These newly acquired apps will increase Paktor's user base by ~7M, bringing the total number to 20M users.
by Yon Heong Tung
See full article at SGNews
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Asian Paktor Acquired Latin American Dating App Kickoff
PRESS RELEASE – May 31 – Kickoff, the Latin American dating app which connects friends of friends, has been acquired by Paktor, the mobile dating and social networking brand for singles in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The full article was originally published at Kickoff website, but is no longer available.
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Latin America Dating App Kickoff Raised $1.6M
PEHUB – Oct 26 – Kickoff, Latin America’s leading dating app, which connects friends of friends looking for a meaningful relationship, has received a $1.6M investment from Monashees Capital, Brazil’s leading VC fund, and angel investors. Kickoff was launched in Sao Paulo in Dec '14 and has grown via word of mouth across Brazil and Argentina. The investment provides us the resources to grow our team, expand to new cities and develop new features,” says co-founder and COO Alanna Phelan.
by Iris Dorbian
See full article at PeHub
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
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