M17 Entertainment, Asia’s Leading Social Entertainment Company Raises USD 25 Million in Funding

Funds will be used to strengthen talent development pipeline, and invested into tech infrastructure development

HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach - 6 December 2018 - M17 Entertainment, Asia's leading social entertainment company, announced today that it has successfully raised USD 25 million in a funding round led by Terry Tsang, CEO of Hong Kong's leading mobile game developer - Madhead. Mr. Tsang is joined in the round by Pavilion Capital, Stonebridge Ventures, alongside existing investors. M17 Entertainment is expected to achieve USD 180 million in annual revenues this year, up significantly from previously announced revenue figures, demonstrating strong growth trajectory.

Coupled with robust, sustained performance in the highly promising Japanese live entertainment market, the round witnessed burgeoning interest and M17 Entertainment expects additional funding in the upcoming two months, which would further bolster its position to take additional market share in the live entertainment industry of Developed Asia.

With new funding from its current round, M17 Entertainment is set to invest in research and development to boost its technical capabilities, firmly establish a well-rounded system to develop talent and actively diversify content and services to elevate user experience.

Propelling quality content and diverse talent to a global stage

Joseph Phua, co-founder and CEO of M17 Entertainment, said: "Since M17 Entertainment's establishment, we have been committed in our mission to enable connections through a widely accessible live entertainment stage, made possible by our various platforms. We hope to empower individuals to realise their dreams of stardom; to award them with a stage to showcase their talents to a global audience. We aim to perfect the art of live entertainment, by developing and seamlessly integrating engaging content. Built on a strong foundation of resources and talents, we can drive deeper interaction between content creators and users."

As this round of fundraising concludes, M17 Entertainment continues to diversify its content and operations in multiple markets to benefit its streamers and users in the long run.

The funding will be used to drive the following key areas:

• Upgrade technical infrastructure and introduce innovative features to create a truly intuitive product with a higher level of interactivity between streamers and users
• Break the mould of traditional live streaming companies by equipping streamers with relevant resources, including expert advisors, training curriculum and valuable opportunities for exposure in different areas of showbiz
• Implement and sustain a well-rounded and systematic process to discover, train and promote streamers
• Lead the social entertainment space with continuous advancements, heralding a new era of premium live content and interactivity

Investing in talent to maximise growth potential

Terry Tsang, CEO of Madhead, said, "I am optimistic about the growth potential of M17 Entertainment, and have great faith in Joseph's passion and vision. I am confident that Joseph will lead the highly capable M17 team in its quest to transform the future of social entertainment.".

Established in May 2017 with a vision to usher in a new age of live streaming, M17 Entertainment first kicked off by integrating innovative elements and generating new content. The new funds will accelerate its plans to improve their live streaming capabilities. M17 Entertainment currently has offices in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, the U.S., and Malaysia, and employs close to 600 people worldwide. With plans to deepen its roots in Asia and having recently entered the U.S. market, M17 Entertainment seeks to pave the way for the next generation of social entertainment globally.

【About M17 Entertainment Limited】

M17 Entertainment Limited, operator of the largest live streaming platform in Developed Asia, has a mission to empower artists by disrupting the traditional artist-agency model through its systematic process to discover, train and promote artists. M17 Entertainment is a tech-enabled and data-driven entertainment company led by veteran media and entertainment executives with experience managing top artists and producing high quality music and video content in Asia, as well as operating social and interactive entertainment platforms globally. The company's interactive entertainment platform includes 17 Media, the largest live streaming platform by revenue in Developed Asia. M17 Entertainment also operates dating applications Paktor, which was launched in Singapore in 2013, and Goodnight. For more information regarding M17 Entertainment, please visit http://m17.asia/.