MUMBAI: Bubble Motion’s raised $10 million in growth capital to accelerate the roll-out of its voice-based social communications service. Led by SingTel Innov8, the SingTel Group’s corporate venture capital fund, this round also includes Singapore’s Infocomm Investments in addition to insiders Sequoia Capital, Palomar Ventures, and NGC.
This is Bubble Motion’s second round of financing since its strategic shift into becoming a social messaging company in 2009. Since Bubble Motion launched Bubbly, its flagship voice-based social messaging service, a year ago, it has gained over 7 million users across four countries namely India, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines and has delivered more than 250 million bubble messages through its service.
This strategic round of financing will be used by Bubble Motion to accelerate growth of its service into new countries, while scaling its technology platform which has become the standard voice-based mobile social networking solution for mobile operators across Asia. The company’s flagship service Bubbly will expand to additional mobile platforms including additional operator networks, the mobile Web and smartphone applications.
Bubble Motion is already working closely with several large associates within the SingTel Group, including Bharti Airtel in India, Telkomsel in Indonesia, and Globe in the Philippines. SingTel brings a vast network of operator partners and contacts, as well as renowned telecom expertise and experience to Bubble Motion.
"We have been impressed with the strong growth of the Bubbly service across Asia and are excited to be joining up with the Bubble Motion team. We are looking forward to working with the company to build and expand on their early success," said SingTel Innov8 CEO Yvonne Kwek.
"We are excited to have SingTel and Infocomm Investments join our group of existing investors as we continue to shape the mobile social media landscape in Asia and beyond. Given our focus in mobile social media in Asia, these two new investors are the perfect fit for our current strategy and we’re very excited to have them onboard," added Bubble Motion CEO Thomas Clayton.
