Kumu Holdings Pte. Ltd., the company that owns the technology behind Philippine live streaming app Kumu, said it raised $5 million to roll out new features and scale up operations.
The Series A funding round comes at a time when quarantines and social distancing measures are keeping people at home at an unprecedented scale, increasing the usage of apps in the media and entertainment categories.
The Series A was led by Openspace Ventures, one of the largest venture capital companies in Singapore known for leading the Series A round of Indonesian unicorn Go-Jek in 2015. This marks Openspace’s second portfolio company from the Philippines after it invested in fashion e-commerce platform BeautyMNL.
“As the rise of global interactive platforms such as Tik Tok and live streaming apps gain acceptance with the younger generation, there remains a significant gap for local content and hyper-local networks,” said Hian Goh, co-founder and partner at Openspace Ventures.
“The Philippines, with 103 million citizens and a young, internet-savvy population, have found Kumu to be a compelling addition to the media landscape, and the Filipino leadership of Roland and his co-founders have created a unique network which we think will dominate the media landscape in the country in the coming years,” he said.
The funding round attracted unprecedented participation from Kickstart Ventures, the corporate VC firm of Globe Telecom and ABS-CBN Corp., the country’s largest media and entertainment company. It was also joined by Gobi Core Philippine Fund, a local partnership with Gobi Partners, an international investment firm which also manages the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund.
“Filipinos are spending more and more time online to consume content and to find and connect with like-minded people, and Kumu has created a path for Pinoys to do these things in a way that uniquely captures the Pinoy spirit of community,” said Kickstart Ventures vice president for investments Joan Cybil Yao.
“With a focus on positivity, safety, and acceptance, Kumu enables its users, content creators, and businesses to interact with one another in authentic and engaging ways. We’re excited to be supporting Kumu’s mission of empowering and connecting Filipinos around the world,” she said.
ABS-CBN head of business development Luis Paolo Pineda expressed his elation regarding Kumu’s Series A round completion.
“We at ABS-CBN have witnessed the progressive evolution of the media industry, and are impressed with the innovations that Kumu has pioneered. With this app, we envision a new era for our shows, game shows, and ABS-CBN talents, wherein fresh ideas and live interaction can serve our audience best,” he said.
Summit Media and Philippine-based VC Foxmont Capital Partners also followed on from a previous $1.2-million seed round of funding.
Summit Media president and chief executive Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng noted the bright prospects with her company’s partnership with Kumu which has been established since 2018.
“As a media company, it is our purpose to be on the pulse of what technologies will revolutionize our landscape. Our investments from print to digital and now mobile apps, gives us an opportunity for our brands to deliver unique content through live-streaming, as well as discover new content creators beginning their careers,” Gokongwei said.
Kumu will be using the new capital to scale up its current operations, which has enjoyed unprecedented growth in recent months. The company recently reached 3 million registered users as the fastest growing social app in the Philippines, commanding almost one hour of average daily usage for a mostly GenZ & Millennial userbase.
The community enjoys a wide selection of over 25,000 livestreams broadcasted on the Kumu app each day.