General Atlantic leads Series C for Philippines-based Kumu

Openspace Ventures and SIG also participated. The investment is being called the largest equity round ever raised by a Filipino start-up that was not founded as a subsidiary or spinoff of an established conglomerate. It also marks General Atlantic’s first investment in the Philippines.

Openspace and SIG joined Kickstart Ventures, Foxmont Capital Partners, Gobi-Core Philippine Fund, Gentree Fund, and Summit Media in a Series B of undisclosed size in June, alongside Endeavor Catalyst Fund, a vehicle chaired by Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn. A $5 million Series A came in April last year.

“Kumu is rapidly emerging as a leading digital content community and social platform in the Philippines, as well as for the global Filipino diaspora,” Sandeep Naik, a managing director and head of India and Southeast Asia at General Atlantic, said in a statement.

“We believe an immense digital opportunity exists in the Philippines, a market that is hungry for content and ripe for disruption, with Kumu’s innovative livestreaming offering paving the way for the company’s continued growth as a broader online media platform.”

Kumu claims to be the top-grossing social app in the Philippines and among the top 10 players in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and Canada. User-generated content and livestreaming are core to the model, which generates revenue via virtual gifting, advertising, and e-commerce tools. These functions also allow creators to convert engagement into income.

“The first generation of social media was defined by passive engagement, where the platform wins through advertising, but all except the top 1% of creators struggle to earn a living,” Rexy Dorado, president and co-founder of Kumu, added. “We are early movers in this movement towards a genuine creator economy where anyone can earn a sustainable income from just a hundred true fans each.”

The combination of e-commerce and social media has proven potent in Southeast Asia, where live-sales have been estimated to amount to two-thirds of total online shopping. The Philippines is considered a frontrunner in this trend, with local social media penetration said to be increasing by almost 10% a year.

Filipinos are sometimes described as the most avid social media users globally, spending at least 10 hours a day online on average, four of which are spent on social media. About 80% of the country uses Facebook.

Kumu claims its users spend as much as 80 hours a week on the platform, with more than half of the views and transactions occurring between users who follow one another. Use-cases include gameshows with cash prizes and community engagement campaigns.

There is also a significant focus on professionally produced content. This includes a partnership with famed Filipino film director Cathy Garcia-Molina and an affiliation with Pinoy Big Brother, a hit TV show that allows viewers to vote on the fate of contestants in real-time.

The most distinctive aspect of the Kumu model is a focus on community-driven content moderation and safety that has led to the app being called the “Disneyland of social media.” The approach is believed to be behind some early traction with non-Filipino audiences in the US and Europe.

“Kumu has built one of the hardest things to build on the internet, a safe space,” said Akshay Bajaj, an investor at SIG. “One thing that we always look for in content companies is unique platform positioning.”

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Media
• Consumer
• Expansion
• Philippines
• General Atlantic
• Openspace Ventures
• SIG
• TMT
• e-commerce