M17 Entertainment, the Singapore-based digital media company backed by corporates Yahoo Japan and Media Nusantara Citra (MCN), filed on Friday to raise up to $115m in an initial public offering in the US.
Formed through a December 2016 merger, M17 owns swipe-based dating and networking apps Paktor and Goodnight, and 17 Media, a livestreaming platform that had more than 33 million registered users by the end of March this year.
The company made a $26.9m loss in the first three months of 2018, from $37.9m in revenue. It intends to put the IPO proceeds into developing additional content and expansion in the Japanese market, once a planned acquisition of 17 Media Japan is complete.
Paktor had raised $52.5m pre-merger, from investors including media group MCN, internet company Yahoo Japan’s YJ Capital unit, Vertex Asia Fund, Global Grand Leisure, Majuven, Convergence Ventures, Golden Equator Capital, Sebrina Holdings and K2 Global.
LeSports Innovation Fund, a subsidiary of online streaming platform LeSports, had invested $23m in 17 Media in 2016, after Infinity Venture Partners and entrepreneur Sicong Wang had provided $10m in series A funding the previous year.
M17 secured $40m in an August 2017 round led by Infinity Venture Partners that included Yahoo Japan, the Singapore state-owned Vertex Ventures, Majuven, Golden Summit Capital and KTB Ventures.
None of the corporates own shares of 5% or more in M17. Its largest shareholders are Master Plan Worldwide, a vehicle owned by chairman Jeff Huang (17.1%); Dragon Alexander, which is owned by CEO Joseph Phua (13.5%); Vertex (12.1%), Infinity (9.1%) and KTB (5.7%).
Citigroup Global Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities, Daiwa Capital Markets America and Mizuho Securities USA are the underwriters for the offering, which is set to take place on the New York Stock Exchange.