Kumu, a Filipino social media platform launched in 2018, is poised to continue to grow after receiving a boost with a round of Series C funding,
According to its Wikipedia page, Kumu is owned and developed by Kumumedia Technologies Inc., primarily serving the Philippine market and Filipinos living overseas. The page identified it as a hybrid of a number of social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Messenger.
Yahoo Finance noted that since its inception, Kumu has grown to the No. 1 social app in the Philippines and ranks in the Top 10 in a number of other markets, including Canada, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. This growth sparked interest by growth equity firm General Atlantic, which led the Series C funding, according to Yahoo.
“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, General Atlantic’s managing director and head of India and Southeast Asia, said in the Yahoo report.
Overall, Yahoo noted that the live streaming app has grown to include more than 10 million registered users from more than 55 countries.
"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 live-streaming offering paving the way for the company’s continued growth as a broader online media platform,” Naik said in the Yahoo report.
The continued growth has driven interest in Kumu. According to Technasia, the company so far has received $100 million from investors, though the value of the latest round was not released. It also marks General Atlantic’s first investment move into the Philippines.
Esquire reported that existing investors include Openspace Ventures, Kickstart Ventures, ABS-CBN, Gobi-Core Philippine Fund, Summit Media and Foxmont Capital Partners, which all were involved in a round of Series A funding in 2020 that totaled $5 million. According to Yahoo, Hian Goh, a co-founder and partner at Openspace, noted that as a regional fund, it has seen the potential for the Philippines to become a vibrant startup market in Southeast Asia.
“This belief, combined with our proprietary data, gave us the confidence to make an early investment in Kumu – and to double down now with capital from our mid-stage growth fund OSV+,” Goh said, according to Yahoo.
Kumu, according to Esquire magazine, is abbreviated form the Filipino word “kumusta,” translated in English as “hello, how are you.”
In a news release, General Atlantic said the funding would be used to boost content both in the Philippines and abroad.
Fueling the growth of Kuma was its collaboration with ABS-CBN, the largest entertainment and media company in the Philippines, according to Esquire.
In addition to its recent round of funding and the 2020 funding, Kumu received $1.2 million in funding in late 2018 from Summit Media, Foxmont Capital Partners and Two Culture Capital, according to its Wikipedia page. Earlier this year, the company received an undisclosed amount of Series B funding from Gentree Fund, Endeavor Catalyst Fund, Summit Media, Kickstart Ventures, Foxmont Capital Partners, and Gobi-Core Philippine Fund, according to the Wikipedia page.
Emarketer reported that the growth of the app could be attributed to the amount of time Filipinos spend using social media. The website, citing data from the GlobalWebIndex “Social Flagship Report” earlier this year, noted that social media users in the Philippines spend an average of just over four hours daily using social media, tops among the average time spent on social media platforms.