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JAFCO invests $5m into VC-backed Bubble Motion

  • Alvina Yuen
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JAFCO Asia has invested $5 million in Bubble Motion, a voice blogger service provider backed by venture capital players including Sequoia Capital.

The investment will be used to expand Bubble Motion's businesses into core Asian countries like India, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines, as well as the broader global market.

Bubble Motion's flagship service, Bubbly, has reached a user base of 19 million, having launched its app on iPhones and Android phones globally. The company has also hired Justin Mann, former senior engineering manager at Microsoft in China, as its new chief architect.

"We have known Bubble Motion for quite some time and have always been impressed by the caliber of the core team in Singapore," said Murli Ravi, head of South Asia for JAFCO, "and after we saw their phenomenal growth in Japan as well as the other countries in Asia, we felt like we really wanted to be an investor in the company."

Bubble Motion has been backed by venture capital investors since 2006 when Sequoia Capital invested $10 million for an undisclosed stake. Two years later, Sequoia led another $14 million funding round alongside Comcast Interactive Capital and NCD Investors. In March 2011, the venture capital firm also partnered with SingTel Ventures, Infocomm Investments, Palomar Ventures and NGC to put $10 million into the company.

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