East leads $20m round for Singapore's Mighty Jaxx

The company has raised USD 34.8m to date and is valued at more than USD 200m, according to a Linkedin post. The new funding will support expansion into more markets in Southeast Asia. It currently has offices in Singapore, China, London, and Los Angeles.

Founded in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Jackson Aw, Mighty Jaxx designs and manufactures figurines in partnership with global brands such as Hasbro, Sesame Street, Toei Animation, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Warner Brothers, DC Comics and Looney Tunes. Mighty Jaxx ships to over 60 countries worldwide, and is on track to ship 8m products in 2021 alone.

The business model is similar to that of China-based fashion toymaker Pop Mart, which was founded in 2010. Pop Mart raised HKD 5.22bn (USD 674m) through a Hong Kong IPO in 2020.

One obvious difference is that Pop Mart operates under a blind box model: customers can buy a full set of 12 dolls or an individual doll without knowing which one. Pop Mart has strong online and offline distribution networks domestically and it has entered overseas markets like South Koera, Japan, Singapore, and the US.

Mighty Jaxx claims to be building an integrated platform to empower future pop-culture brands with an end-to-end supply of collectables. Services cover artist development and incubation, intellectual property operation, and new retail.

It will leverage East Ventures’ expertise and connections in Southeast Asia to expand geographically. Meanwhile, Mirana is expected to help develop capabilities in digital collectables.

"We are looking to position ourselves at the forefront of the creator economy and the metaverse future, and we will be focused on developing our extended reality and Web3 capabilities to bridge 'phygital' collectables and online, digital experiences," the company said.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Early-stage
• Consumer
• Singapore
• East Ventures