Internet company Daum Kakao agreed yesterday to acquire US-based social network Path for an undisclosed sum, granting an exit to investors including internet holding company Digital Garage and conglomerate Bakrie.
Founded in 2010, Path aimed to establish a social network more intimate than that offered by Facebook, allowing users to exchange pictures and messages with up to 150 friends. It eventually elected to focus on Southeast Asia, where it gained the most traction, with Indonesia its largest market.
Path had raised about $65m according to press releases and regulatory filings, most recently securing $25m in January 2014 from Bakrie and venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Index Ventures, Greylock Partners, Insight Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures and First Round Capital.
Digital Garage was among the investors in an $8.7m series A round, closed in 2011, which also featured KPCB and Index.
Korea-based Daum Kakao, which has been striving to secure a foothold in Indonesia, is purchasing the Path app but interestingly not the company – no employees are moving from Path to Daum Kakao, according to TechCrunch.
Path has not revealed whether it will retain its staff in order to concentrate on its quest to becoming a multi-app development studio, an initiative announced last year. It released the first fruits of that quest, a selfie app called Kong, earlier this week.