South Korea’s Yello Mobile has said its latest financing round values the mobile internet startup at around US$4bn. Yello secured US$47.2m by issuing convertible debt. Existing investor Formation 8, a Silicon Valley VC firm, led the investment alongside other new and existing investors.
South Korea’s Yello Mobile has said its latest financing round values the mobile internet startup at around US$4bn.
Yello secured US$47.2m by issuing convertible debt. Existing investor Formation 8, a Silicon Valley VC firm, led the investment alongside other new and existing investors.
Another US$100m of convertible debt could be sold to overseas investors in the months ahead, according to a Yello regulatory filing.
Proceeds will be used to strengthen Yello’s position in Asian markets. It is a portfolio business that has been built through acquiring tens of mobile applications, platforms and services, and Yello now boasts more than 18 million monthly active users in South Korea.
Brian Koo (pictured), partner at Formation 8, said: “We are particularly excited about the company’s expansion across the rest of Asian market, where we see highly compelling opportunities for Yello’s platform model given the rapidly-growing mobile environment and increasing appetite for the [shopping, media, advertisement, travel and online-to-offline] verticals.”
Formation 8 previously invested US$100m into Yello in November 2014, when it was valued at US$1bn.