Video-based social media platform YY today completed the acquisition of one of its portfolio companies, Singapore-based social video livestreaming platform developer Bigo, for more than $1.45bn.
YY paid approximately $343m in cash, with the remainder made up of shares. YY had owned approximately 31.7% of Bigo ahead of the acquisition.
Founded in 2015, Bigo’s flagship product is a livestreaming platform called Bigo Live. It also offers a short-form video-based social media service known as Like as well as a range of other apps such as gaming-focused streaming platform CubeTV.
Bigo relies on artificial intelligence technology to remove sexually suggestive content from its platform and has unveiled plans to partner governments in order to utilise the same technology for cyber surveillance.
The company is primarily active in Southeast and southern Asia, the Middle East and the US. YY expects Bigo’s acquisition to support its aim of becoming a global player in the video-based social media space.
Bigo most recently closed a $272m series D round led by YY in June 2018 that also featured David Li, chief executive of Bigo and chairman and acting CEO of YY. Its series D investment gave YY an option to wholly acquire Bigo within a year of the transaction.
Ping An Overseas Holdings, the asset management arm of insurance firm Ping An, contributed to a series C round of undisclosed size in 2017 that brought Bigo’s total funding to $180m.
Bigo’s backers also include Bertelsmann Asia Investments, a corporate venturing subsidiary of media group Bertelsmann, as well as Morningstar Capital and Gaorong Capital, though the company has not released further details about earlier rounds.
