Yello Mobile Announces $100M Investment From Formation 8, Achieves $1Bn Valuation

Startup

2014년 11월 11일

Yello Mobile has today announced an investment of just over $100M from Formation 8 Partners .

The investment was made as a result of Yello Mobile’s opportunity to continue to grow into overseas markets. It is expected that the company will utilize Formation 8’s extensive networks and experiences from Silicon Valley, in order to lead the Asian mobile market in the future.

Yello Mobile now have 50 ventures in their alliance, having acquired a majority share in the companies, partly through cash injection, but mostly through stock swapping. While most of the company’s acquisitions are from Korea, last September they bought Price Area, Indonesia’s largest price comparison site, as a first step to expanding across Asia. Since 2012 they have bought a large number of mobile services in Travel, Shopping, Advertising, and O2O (online to offline). It is expected that this investment will accelerate their growth across Asia, as they aim to become the biggest and most wide-reaching 'Mobile Platform Company' in Asia.

Yello Mobile has now achieved a $1Bn valuation, within only two years after launch. This is the fastest growth of any Korean company in the nation’s history and will likely invigorate the local startup ecosystem, that has already show rapid and sustained growth over the last three years. Korean founders have needed the boost of 'big exits' and the story of Yello Mobile is certainly inspiring.

The CEO of Yello Mobile, SangHyeok Lee, said of the investment: “We are very glad to have Formation 8 as our new investor and partner. They have a focus on fostering innovation in Silicon Valley and have a wide range of partners with whom we can now collaborate. With this investment and the networks and experience we have on boarded through Formation 8, we plan to build the best mobile platform company in Asia.”

A spokesperson from Formation 8 commented: “This is not just investment. This is also a big step towards accelerating a Korean company with huge potential, and also the whole startup ecosystem in Korea.”

Brian Koo, Managing Partner of Formation 8 Korea said: “We saw the opportunity of Yello Mobile to be able to lead the Asian mobile market. Yello Mobile has a unique ability to attract some of the best mobile companies in Asia. They are doing very aggressive M&A and are making synergy with other companies and can lead the new mobile ecosystem.