M17 Entertainment raised US$60.1 million during its roadshow but was targetting US$115 million at US$8 a share

M17 Entertainment, the Taiwanese live streaming app that owns Paktor, missed its US$115 million fundraising target and has delayed its planned IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), according to TechCrunch.

DealStreetAsia independently confirmed the delay via a spokesperson but M17 cannot reveal any more details as it is in a 30 day quiet-period required by all companies ahead of a public listing in the US.

The company priced its shares at US$8 and raised US$60.1 million, so just over half of their IPO target.

Last month’s IPO announcement was a major win for the Southeast Asian startup economy. Even though Paktor is owned by a Taiwanese company, it is born out of Singapore so it would have represented a homegrown startup growing from nothing to a public exit.

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The IPO money was meant to be used to expand to Japan as well as grow its internal base of live-streaming personalities.

The company may have struggled to attract significant excitement because it is still a fairly small company that is operating at a significant loss.

M17 has 700,000 monthly active users while the dating arm of the company has 14.6 million users stretched over three brands. Despite making US$37.9 million last year, M17 operated at a loss of US$26.9 million.

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In the IPO prospectus, M17 said its strength is its status as a top live-streaming app in developed Asia but also pointed to a struggle to retain new users and personalities as a problem faced by the company.

While the brand Paktor is well-known in Southeast Asia, the IPO prospectus report was clearly positioned towards the live-streaming product with glancing mentions of the dating services.

M17 Entertainment has 11 companies under its umbrella that are split between the dating and live-streaming themes.

Joseph Phua, who was the CEO and Co-founder of Paktor, became the Group CEO of M17 after the merger.

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