BEIJING and SAN FRANCISCO, CA — (Marketwired) — 04/17/13 — Yodo1 (), a leading publisher of Western smartphone games for China-s 300 million+ iOS/Android market, has successfully raised $5 million in Series A funding. The funding will be used to meet incessant and continued demand from non-Chinese indie developers avid to enter the world-s largest mobile game market.
This round was led by SingTel Innov8, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based SingTel Group, with additional funding from original investor Chang You Fund. This announcement comes as Yodo1 reported 25 million active Chinese players of its many popular iOS and Android games, including Defiant Development-s Ski Safari, XMG-s Powder Monkeys, HandyGames- Clouds & Sheep, and Robot Entertainment-s Hero Academy.
Yodo1 CEO Henry Fong notes that the company is experiencing exponential user growth and incessant demand from Western developers eager to join its roster of partners. “So the challenge,” as Fong puts it, “is keeping up with the demand from high quality studios.” (See growth stats below.) This funding will expand Yodo1-s production capacity to be able to work with more Western game companies, and build the company-s platform and production team.
“Emerging markets such as China and Southeast Asia represent the most exciting prospects for mobile games developers,” Fong explains, “with close to 1 billion mobile subscribers migrating from feature phones to smartphone handsets over the next 2 years.” For that reason, he added, “the SingTel Group is a perfect partner for Yodo1, with over 450 million mobile subscribers across Southeast Asia and other high growth emerging markets, and growing.”
Since publishing its first game in June 2012, Yodo1 has experienced strong user growth and engagement in China. Here-s a sampling of relevant stats:
25 million active Chinese players across all Yodo1-s games as of April 2013
5-6 million new players of Yodo1 games per month
Daily active users and revenue for Yodo1 now doubling on a monthly basis
250+ Western game studios contacting Yodo1 since 2012
“Gaming is one of the fastest growing segments in the smartphone ecosystem, and Yodo1 has cracked the code on how to publish international smartphone games in China, one of the most difficult markets in the world,” says William Bao Bean, Managing Director, SingTel Innov8 explaining the firm-s reason for leading the Series A investment.
Some experts forecast China will have 500 million Android and iOS owners by the end of 2013 — most of whom play games on their phones on a regular basis.
To learn more about Yodo1 and how to mobilize your games in China, please visit .
Yodo1 is a market entry specialist and full service publishing platform which helps Western game developers successfully gain traction and monetize in the China mobile game market. Staffed by a team of experienced mobile developers, creative artists, game designers and China market experts, Yodo1 helps game developers quickly adapt, publish and monetize their games in China with its API platform. Yodo1 has partnered with leading Western game developers to successfully enter and grow in China, including Robot Entertainment (Texas), XMG Studio (Toronto), Defiant Development (Australia), and HandyGames (Germany). Founded in 2011, Yodo1 is based in Beijing with a presence in San Francisco. For more information, please visit and follow Yodo1 on Twitter at
SingTel Innov8 (Innov8), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SingTel Group, is a corporate venture capital fund, with its own set of decision making, approval and funding processes. It has an initial fund size of S$200 million. Innov8 focuses its investments on technologies and solutions that lead to quantum changes in network capabilities, next generation devices, digital content services and enablers to enhance customer experience. It works closely with the ecosystem of leading innovators, developers, government agencies, R&D and capital providers to bring cutting-edge technologies and solutions to the various markets the SingTel Group operates in.
Media Contact
Vanessa Camones
theMIX agency for Yodo1
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