E-commerce company Alibaba agreed today to invest $120m in US-based mobile game developer Kabam as part of a strategic collaboration.
As part of the deal, Alibaba will publish Kabam games through its mobile applications, which include online marketplace Mobile Taobao and instant messaging app Laiwang.
The size of the stake Alibaba will acquire has not been disclosed but Kabam’s chief operating officer, Kent Wakeford, told TechCrunch that the investment valued the company at more than $1bn. Kabam was reportedly valued at $700m at the time of a secondary offering in July 2013.
Kabam opened an office in Beijing in 2010 and has developed several of its biggest titles in China. It has also formed a $50m Worldwide Developers Fund, which works with Asian developers, but the partnership will enable it to reach further into the market.
“Truly successful games companies have to be globally successful,” said Kabam CEO Kevin Chou.
“This strategic collaboration with Alibaba provides Kabam the resources, infrastructure and distribution to help bring our current and future durable franchise games to China and elsewhere in Asia and make an immediate impact.”
Kabam raised about $125m in venture funding through 2011, securing $85m in a July 2011 series D round featuring the corporate venturing units of semiconductor maker Intel, internet company Google and telecommunications company SK Telecom, as well as Canaan Partners, Performance Equity Management and Redpoint Ventures.
Entertainment companies Warner Brothers Entertainment and MGM Studios subsequently invested an undisclosed amount in the developer in 2012.
Gambling exchange Betfair reportedly invested in Kabam in 2009, but as it is not listed among the company’s current investors, it may well have been one the shareholders to exit through the secondary offering last year.