Lomotif, also-ran to TikTok, undergoes liquidation amid disarray at parent firm

Lomotif, the Singapore-based short-video app once billed as a budding rival to TikTok, has filed for liquidation.

Lomotif CEO and founder Paul Yang (left) and Zash co-founder Ted Farnsworth / Photo credit: Tech in Asia

This comes two years after Zash Global Media and Entertainment Corporation acquired Lomotif in a buzzy multimillion dollar deal that was meant to grow the app’s presence globally but failed to achieve desired results.

Checks by Tech in Asia found that Lomotif is no longer available for download on the Apple App Store. It was, however, still available for download on the Google Play Store as of January 23. Lomotif’s website is also no longer active.

When Tech in Asia contacted Lomotif founder Paul Yang for comment, he said he couldn’t discuss matters relating to the firm. Yang’s LinkedIn profile shows that he left the company in July 2023.

Filings with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority in Singapore also indicate that Lomotif Private Limited submitted a notice of winding up in October 2023, citing insolvency as grounds.

A liquidator from Mann & Associates was appointed.

Representatives at Zash and Vinco Ventures, which owns Lomotif through a joint venture with Zash, could not be reached for comment.

Lomotif’s valuation

Zash, a firm co-founded by famed financier and former MoviePass chairman Ted Farnsworth, acquired 80% of Lomotif for US$125 million in February 2021, Bloomberg reported.

The exit was large by Singapore startup standards and propelled the little-known app into the limelight.

See also: Lomotif, the $125m exit that Singapore’s VCs missed?

However, data from Alternatives.pe suggests that Lomotif had a post-money valuation of US$36 million.

In a March 2021 interview with Tech in Asia, Lomotif and Zash did not comment on the deal value. However, the deal’s price tag of US$125 million would have implied that Lomotif’s valuation was worth at least that much.

The acquisition was meant to inject a wealth of content into Lomotif’s platform, which Farnsworth said had 14 million monthly active users at the time. In theory, users could take and remake content from film, TV syndication, and reality TV businesses in Zash’s portfolio companies to create new clips.

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