Digital media company Collab Asia secures US$7.5M in Series B funding led by Korean Gorilla Private Equity, eyeing Asia expansion

Collab Asia, a digital media company and social media influencer network, announced that it has raised US$7.5 million in Series B funding in a round led by Gorilla Private Equity from Korea. Other investors include Samsung Ventures from Korea, PKSHA SPARX Algorithm Fund L.P. from Japan, NCORE VENTURES from Korea, and Silicon Valley-based Altos Ventures from the US.

The company’s latest investment follows a US$3 million Series A funding round in 2017 from Altos Ventures.

Collab Asia said it plans to use the funds to create localised content for Asia and focus on helping creators and content companies produce, distribute, monetise, and build audiences across multiple digital platforms.

Eugene Choi, CEO, and Co-Founder of Collab Asia said: “With Collab Asia’s mission in putting creators first, this Series B round of funding is a big milestone toward connecting creators with brands and other business opportunities to extend their reach and revenues.”

Collab Asia said it has set up offices in Seoul, Tokyo, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Manila and most recently Singapore, and is already managing over 1,800 YouTube channels in key Asian markets.

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The office in Singapore will serve as a regional hub for Southeast Asia, and also serve advertisers looking to expand their marketing initiatives in the digital space across the APAC region.

The channels that the company manages encompass a cross-section of interests including gaming, beauty, music, lifestyle, animation, comedy, and other formats of engaging, viral content to over 155 million subscribers, claiming to be generating over 2.5 billion monthly views on YouTube alone.

Han Kim, Managing Director at Altos Ventures commented, “Today’s consumers crave freshness and authenticity. Influencers and user-generated content leverage social networks to deliver these, and brands are fast realising the value of companies such as Collab Asia as important change agents.”

Collab Asia is a spin-off company of Collab Inc., its US-based affiliation. In 2017, the company independently offered creator management, branded content consulting and digital rights management (DRM) services, applying the know-how of Collab’s digital content production, distribution, monetisation, and audience-building systems to capture growth opportunities in the emerging markets of Asia.

It said that it will continue to leverage its strategic relationship with Collab Inc’s affiliated presence in Los Angeles and New York to provide a truly global network for digital content creators, audiences, and brands.

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The company has extended its business to China by working with platforms such as Duoyin, Bilibili, Toutiao, iQiyi, Baidu’s Haokan, and Tencent Video.

Collab Asia’s next project will be Co-Presenting sponsor of the first-ever VidCon Asia Summit alongside Facebook. VidCon, continuing its international expansion under parent company Viacom, will hold the inaugural two-day event from December 3-4, 2019 at the Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore.

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