M17 Entertainment, the company that owns Paktor and live-streaming service 17 Media, is hoping to raise US$115 million

M17 Entertainment, a company that includes 17 Media, a Taiwanese live streaming service and Singaporean dating app Paktor, has is hoping to raise US$115 million public on the New York Stock Exchange.

The IPO will be underwritten by Citigroup, Deutsche Bank Securities, Daiwa Capital Markets and Mizuho Securities.

The prospectus is largely focussed on the company’s live-streaming service.

M17 made just over 90 million dollars in 2017, but operated at a loss of US$61.8 million. In Q1 2018, the company made US$37.9 million and is operating at a loss of US$26.9 million.

The strategy for the startup is to expand into Japan, expand content offerings, grow the number of artists on the live-streaming service and, of course, achieve profitability.

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In any IPO prospectus, the company is required to list its strengths and weaknesses. For its strengths, M17 pointed to its status as a leading live-streaming platform in developed Asia and a company that has built a consistent path to monetise its services.

As for weaknesses, it pointed to a short operating history, working in a fast-moving industry and its inability to attract and retain new users and artists.

Paktor has 14.6 million people using its dating services, but that is split between the brands of Paktor, Goodnight and Kickoff. The prospectus did not elaborate the users for each individual app.

The monthly active user numbers are 700,000 which represents a growth of 100,000 people quarter-on-quarter. Furthermore, the company said it is working to integrate the live streaming with the dating, which M17 hopes will help accelerate user growth.

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The corporate structure is a little complicated but basically 11 properties fall under the M17 Entertainment umbrella. The core is split between live streaming (called Machipopo Inc. which includes the M17 brand) and dating (under Paktor Pte. Ltd.). Through a series of equity acquisitions, M17 Entertainment now owns 100 per cent od Machipopo and Paktor.

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