Pal+, formerly Cubie, receives funding boost to the tune of $1.3M

Pal+ CEO Thelma Lin, left, with co-founder and former CEO Yenwen “Tempo” Feng, right

Pal+ – formerly known as Cubie – announced on June 30 that it has raised an additional US$1.3 million in funding from its Thailand-based partner Asiasoft, Taiwanese VC firm Expert Idea Limited, and FunP, the company’s seed investor. Last time we checked in on Pal+, it was known as Cubie and had only just relaunched as Pal+, having pivoted towards developing its social gaming features in partnership with gaming publisher Asiasoft.

CEO of Pal+ Thelma Lin explains that at present, half of Pal+’s monthly active users are based in Southeast Asia. Further support from Asiasoft – an experienced publisher in the region – will help the company expand its userbase. “The investment from Asiasoft, more than anything, validates the significance of Pal+’s userbase in Thailand and elsewhere in the region,” explained Lin.

The move to a more focused gaming-oriented social network might be just the thing to help the once dominant, Pal+ reclaim a significant place in a market that has since become flooded with competitors. When Pal+ began as Cubie back in 2012, it was first in the Taiwanese market before being supplanted by overseas competitors Line and Wechat. Partnering with industry stalwart Asiasoft – the company responsible for licensing many of Blizzard’s games throughout SEA – may boost the combined appeal of both companies. Asiasoft CEO Pramoth Sudjitporn explained in a previous interview that Asiasoft is looking to expand into “anything online and internet, that has become [a] product and [a] service.”

A shared destiny

Asiasoft today has 130 million registered users spread throughout Southeast Asia and is eager to capture more of an estimated total of 700 million. Starting out in the pre-internet era of gaming when PCs and consoles were the only viable platforms for game releases, the industry that Asiasoft knew so well has radically changed. In addition to the sophisticated evolution of ecommerce and mobile payment systems, as well as the rapid uptake of smart platforms, mobile gaming revenue reached reached $US1 billion in 2014. In the present environment, there are no geographic boundaries to the entry of new upstarts and the ascent of freemium and advertising-driven business models, means a premium is being placed on the development of multi-channel content ecosystems, able to draw from large communities of users for revenue.

Asiasoft chairman Sherman Tan remarks, “Our goal is to leverage our content and distribution and work with Pal+ to be a neutral and open platform for all game publishers, to be able to distribute their content via mobile to all of Southeast Asia. We are confident that this partnership will be synergistic for all.”