Momo App Receives $40 Million in Funding, Is Alibaba Involved?

2015 UPDATE: Momo has denied this round was worth US$40 million. SEC filings indicate that Momo raised about US$18 million in this round.

We have been covering the Beijing-based flirtatious location-based Momo app for awhile now. And now there’s news from Sina Tech that the startup has received a whopping $40 million in series B funding. That puts its valuation, speculatively, to at least over $100 million. There were rumors stating that Alibaba was involved in this round of funding but an Alibaba representative declined to comment:

As a matter of company policy, we do not comment on speculation or rumors.

That’s not a denial, but it’s hardly a confirmation either.

So far the app has seen quite a bit of traction. We first reviewed it in December 2011, and by March of this year, the app had over two million users. It reached 10 million users in early August and according to its homepage counter, there are over 11 million users right now.

On average, Momo is growing at the impressive rate of one million users per month. At that pace it could potentially hit 15 million at the end of 2012 — or perhaps it could go even higher now that there’s $40 million in its war chest.

Source: Sina Tech