Gobi-Core Philippine Fund adds livestreaming startup Kumu to its portfolio

The Gobi-Core Philippine Fund announced that it added Kumu, a livestreaming platform based in the Philippines, to their portfolio.  The fund, which was co-launched by Asian VC firm Gobi Ventures and Philippine early-stage VC firm Core Capital, now inches closer to their goal of investing in seven local startups by 2021.

Photo credit: Kumu

Kumu is the third firm that Gobi-Core – the US$10 million Philippine fund – has invested in. Established in 2018, the fund has backed education platform Edukasyon.ph and insurtech startup Maria Health.

Founded in 2018, Kumu claims that its user base has more than doubled since the start of the year, surpassing 5 million by October. By the end of 2020, the company said it aims to help more than 600 content creators on its platform earn a wage 20x more than what they had at the start of the year.

Kumu had raised US$5 million in a series A round that was led by Openspace Ventures, with participation from Gobi-Core Philippine Fund, Kickstart Ventures, ABS-CBN, and Summit Media and Foxmont Capital Partners in April.

Prior to that, it raised US$1.2 million in a seed round led by Summit Media in 2018.

The fund plans to invest in four more startups – in industries such as food technology, gaming, logistics, and distribution – to complete its goal of backing seven local startups by 2021.

Based in Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai, Gobi Partners has over US$1.1 billion in assets under management. It invests in companies from the early to growth stages and focuses on emerging and underserved markets. To date, it has raised 13 funds and invested in over 260 startups.

Correction (November 10, 7:00pm Singapore time): This article originally said Kumu had raised a new round of funding from Gobi-Core Philippine Fund. It wasn’t a new round of funding but part of the series A round led by Openspace Ventures.