HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam-based mobile platform provider Appota announced on Thursday it had successfully raised undisclosed funding for its series C round from two investment funds in the Republic of Korea (RoK), according to the Đầu Tư (Investment) newspaper.

The two funds are Korea Investment Partners (KIP) and Mirae Asset Venture Investment.

The current round brings Appota’s valuation on track towards the US$50 million mark and its total funding close to $10 million, founder and CEO of Appota Đỗ Tuấn Anh said.

Earlier, the mobile platform provider received funding from Vietnamese VNP-Group for series A in 2012 and from Japan’s GMO Global Payment Fund and Golden Gate Ventures for series B in 2014.

Following the round, Sang-Ho Park, KIP director of investment at the Seoul-headquartered fund, will join Appota’s board of directors.

This round marks a first in terms of a Việt Nam-based technology startup securing funding from RoK-based investment funds.

"Besides the much-needed capital to fortify our platform and scale our services, KIP and Mirae will contribute their extensive and active network, along with their profound knowledge of the gaming market, social networking and financial tech to help Appota expand with confidence to other parts of Asia," Tuấn Anh said.

As one of the three largest mobile game publishers in Việt Nam, Appota has offices in Hà Nội, HCM City, Indonesia and Singapore.

The company is one of Google’s four partners in Asia to deploy the tech giant’s Mobile Ad Exchange platform in Việt Nam. It also has 30 million local and international users and five million monthly active users.

Prior to investing in Appota, KIP has had a strong track record in investing in the world’s leading tech companies, including Kakao, Naver and Super Evil Megacorp. Meanwhile, Mirae’s portfolio comprises 270 companies worldwide across various sectors, such as technology, mobile, finance and consumer products.

The holding groups of both KIP and Mirae Asset Venture Investment are present in Việt Nam through their brokerage houses and wealth management units. KIP manages 26 venture and private equity funds with $1.5 billion in total assets under management (AUM), while the invested companies of the latter represent $350 billion AUM. — VNS