Social matchmaker Paktor raises $32.5m to venture into ‘social entertainment’

Photo credit: Paktor.

Singaporean social and dating startup Paktor continues to pack on the funding. Today it announced its latest cash injection, worth US$32.5 million.

(Update: We have added comments from Paktor CEO and co-founder Joseph Phua.)

The round comes courtesy of US-Asia-bridging venture capital firm K2 Global and Indonesia’s MNC Media Group. MNC joins the Paktor funding party again after pouring in cash over two rounds in March through July. Other new and existing investors like Vertex Ventures also participated.

Paktor has been very vocal about wanting to be more than a dating app.

CEO and co-founder Joseph Phua confirmed to Tech in Asia this is the third round the startup raised this year.

Fundraising and thinking of ways to grow the company has actually taken up a lot of Joseph’s time this year. The good news is that Paktor doesn’t have to worry about where its next meal comes from – after its July round, it only took a short time for the company to be cashflow positive. According to Joseph, it hasn’t even gone through all of the money it raised in July 2015.

Paktor has broken 20 million registered users, although it’s not clear how many of them use the service regularly. At the end of 2015 it introduced subscription-based services, which it claims contributed to a 22-fold revenue growth year on year and has made it profitable.

“When we started monetizing, things started looking rosier for us. When the financials came in, it was a great feeling to not worry about running out of money anymore,” Joseph says.

Getting social

Paktor will use the funding to expand further into the “social entertainment arena.” Not having to worry about money allowed the team to take a step back and look at where the current market is and where it’s going.

The online dating space has seen consolidations like Chinese dating staples Baihe and Jiayuan joining forces and major player Tinder struggling to grow its user base.

“There’s a seismic shift in the social space and if I’m not moving along I’m going to get caught up in it,” Joseph adds.

The startup has been very vocal since its mid-2015 round about wanting to be more than a dating app.

“We realized that people meet other people at different parts of their lives,” Joseph told us at the time. “They can be at work, out with friends and drinking, at activities where friends invite new friends. Thinking larger, you can meet new people during every aspect of your life, and what we want to try to do is fulfill and serve those aspects within one platform.”