The news was announced through a stock exchange filing from Singtel
Southeast Asian streaming platform HOOQ has raised US$25 million of capital from its existing investors Singtel, Sony Pictures, and Warner Brothers, Techcrunch reported.
According to the report, the funding was announced through a stock exchange filing from Singtel. The filing detailed that Singtel had invested an additional S$23.7 million (US$15.5 million) with the other investors chipping in the rest. It is also revealed that HOOQ had initially raised US$70 million, putting the total number of recent investment US$95 million. This is the first time such information ever been made public.
HOOQ CEO Peter Bithos dubbed the capital as a “drawdown” from originally committed amount. He also stated that the company is preparing to welcome outside investors for the first time and that it will evaluate funding options beyond their first round later this year.
There is no information yet on what the company is planning to use the new funding for.
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The platform was founded in 2015 by the three companies. Following this recent deal, the companies maintain the same shareholding with Singtel owning 65 per cent, while Sony and Warner owning 17.5 per cent each.
HOOQ’s service is available in Indonesia, Phillipines, India, and its own home market Singapore, which only seen its launch in late 2016.
Apart from competition with global player Netflix and Amazon Prime, HOOQ also have to compete with fellow Asian players such as iflix, as well as new contenders Viu and Tribe.
Netflix’s refusal to comply with some countries with strict censorship law, such as Indonesia, has led to its ban from platforms operated by state-owned telco Telkom. While iflix has been taking advantage of such situation by fostering partnership with Telkom itself, most players including HOOQ have been focussing on strengthening local contents.
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