1. Startup

TMG Raises S$1 Million, Plans To Setup Office In Jakarta

Singapore-based gaming company The Mobile Gamer (TMG) closes a series-A financing round of S$1 Million from India's One97 Communications.

TMG is a mobile social game publisher that licenses and develop localized games and distributed through various networks and operators in the South East Asia. TMG's CEO, Alvin Yap said to us via email "We're up to 600K users now and growing really fast. The new investment gives us legs to drive on to a lot more traction in the coming months. It's exciting times here."

Quoted from Reuters, Alvin Yap also confirms TMG's plan to expand to India's mobile market. This is probably the strategic reason for TMG to partner with India-based One97, a mobile value-added services (m-VAS) company. Alvin Yap also said “TMG is extremely thrilled to have One97 as an investor. The value goes beyond money as we are sure Vijay and his team can add significant knowledge and experience along with unprecedented access to the Indian market. We are excited to join the One97 family and to work together with them in becoming the market leader for mobile social games in Asia"

With this financing round, TMG also plans to open up their Jakarta office and start hiring engineers to develop their games. This move shows their faith in the Indonesian gaming market, and for a good reason. "We are the biggest developer on mig33, which have over 27M users in Indonesia. We forecast that 70% of our total users/growth comes from Indonesia.", Alvin said to us via email.

With India and Indonesia marked as target, TMG still have a chance to grab publishers to distribute their games and keep growing before the big dogs decided to pay more attention to these emerging mobile markets.