Author: Lawrence J. Aragon

SJF Ventures has held a final close on its $90 million for its third fund, raising more than three times the amount of its second fund, which totaled $28 million, the firm announced Thursday. Investors in the new fund include Citi, Deutsche Bank, MetLife, Prudential Financial, Cambridge Associates, Mercer Consulting, and Trillium Asset Management, SJF said in a press release. SJF employs six investment professionals and has offices in New York, San Francisco and Durham, N.C.

PRESS RELEASE

PR Newswire

SJF Ventures Raises $90MM Third Fund, Tripling Size of Previous Fund

DURHAM, N.C., NEW YORK, and SAN FRANCISCO, May 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — SJF Ventures conducted the final closing on its third fund with more than $90MM in capital commitments, tripling the size of the previous $28MM second fund. The target for SJF Ventures III was $75MM and the fund was substantially oversubscribed at its final April closing. “We are honored that so many investors choose to join our partnership,” said David Kirkpatrick, SJF Managing Director and Co-Founder. “We are particularly excited that a wide variety of bank, insurance, foundation, family office, pension, mutual fund, and individual investors have recognized that SJF’s impact investing strategy can yield above market financial and mission results.” SJF’s current, second fund is performing in the top quartile all US venture capital funds of its vintage year.

SJF Ventures invests in high growth, positive impact companies seeking expansion capital rounds of $1MM to $10MM. SJF has invested in 36 portfolio companies over the last decade. “We realize SJF’s success is due to the exceptional results achieved by our portfolio companies such as Aseptia, BioSurplus, CleanScapes, Community Energy, eRecyclingCorps, Fieldview, Optoro, MediaMath, MedPage Today, and ServiceChannel,” said David Griest, SJF Managing Director. “We are eager to find the next set of great entrepreneurs for our third fund.”

SJF Ventures has a team of six senior investment professionals, based in offices in Durham, NC, New York and San Francisco, and invests nationwide. SJF has particular expertise and focus on the asset recovery, recycling & reverse logistics, energy & resource efficiency, intelligent infrastructure, sustainable agriculture and food, education, health and wellness sectors.

Investors in SJF Ventures III include banks such as Citi, Deutsche Bank and State Street Bank; the endowments of the Annie E. Casey, F. B. Heron, Jesse Smith Noyes, and Park Foundations and the Wallace Global Fund; insurances and financial services firms MetLife and Prudential Financial, Inc.; mutual and pension funds Calvert Equity Portfolio and MMBB Financial Services; Investors’ Circle members; family offices including Armonia, the Gary Community Investment Company and OpenBox; and clients of Abacus Wealth Partners, Athena Capital Advisors, Ballentine Partners, Cambridge Associates, the CAPROCK Group, Effective Assets, Federal Street Advisors, Filament Advisors, ImpactAssets, Imprint Capital, Mercer Consulting, Natural Investments, Threshold Group LLC, Trillium Asset Management, Veris Wealth, and Watershed Capital. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP acted as legal advisor to SJF Ventures.

www.sjfventures.com

SOURCE SJF Ventures

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Chinese smartphone game publisher Yodo1 reported Wednesday that it has raised $5 million in a Series A round led by SingTel Innov8, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based SingTel Group. Additional funding came from existing investor Chang You Fund. Beijing-based Yodo1 raised $2 million in seed funding last June from Chang You Fund and an undisclosed amount from RTM Asia in February 2012.

PRESS RELEASE

April 17, 2013 22:26 ET

Chinese Smartphone Game Publisher Yodo1 Gets $5 Million in Series A Funding

Funding to Meet High Demand From Western Game Studios to Target China’s 300 Million+ iOS/Android Market

BEIJING and SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire – Apr 17, 2013) – Yodo1 (www.yodo1.com), a leading publisher of Western smartphone games for China’s 300 million+ iOS/Android market, has successfully raised $5 million in Series A funding. The funding will be used to meet incessant and continued demand from non-Chinese indie developers avid to enter the world’s largest mobile game market.

This round was led by SingTel Innov8, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based SingTel Group, with additional funding from original investor Chang You Fund. This announcement comes as Yodo1 reported 25 million active Chinese players of its many popular iOS and Android games, including Defiant Development’s Ski Safari, XMG’s Powder Monkeys, HandyGames’ Clouds & Sheep, and Robot Entertainment’s Hero Academy.

Yodo1 CEO Henry Fong notes that the company is experiencing exponential user growth andincessant demand from Western developers eager to join its roster of partners. “So the challenge,” as Fong puts it, “is keeping up with the demand from high quality studios.” (See growth stats below.) This funding will expand Yodo1′s production capacity to be able to work with more Western game companies, and build the company’s platform and production team.

“Emerging markets such as China and Southeast Asia represent the most exciting prospects for mobile games developers,” Fong explains, “with close to 1 billion mobile subscribers migrating from feature phones to smartphone handsets over the next 2 years.” For that reason, he added, “the SingTel Group is a perfect partner for Yodo1, with over 450 million mobile subscribers across Southeast Asia and other high growth emerging markets, and growing.”
Since publishing its first game in June 2012, Yodo1 has experienced strong user growth and engagement in China. Here’s a sampling of relevant stats:

• 25 million active Chinese players across all Yodo1′s games as of April 2013
• 5-6 million new players of Yodo1 games per month
• Daily active users and revenue for Yodo1 now doubling on a monthly basis
• 250+ Western game studios contacting Yodo1 since 2012

“Gaming is one of the fastest growing segments in the smartphone ecosystem, and Yodo1 has cracked the code on how to publish international smartphone games in China, one of the most difficult markets in the world,” says William Bao Bean, Managing Director, SingTel Innov8 explaining the firm’s reason for leading the Series A investment.

Some experts forecast China will have 500 million Android and iOS owners by the end of 2013 — most of whom play games on their phones on a regular basis.

To learn more about Yodo1 and how to mobilize your games in China, please visit www.yodo1.com.

About Yodo1
Yodo1 is a market entry specialist and full service publishing platform which helps Western game developers successfully gain traction and monetize in the China mobile game market. Staffed by a team of experienced mobile developers, creative artists, game designers and China market experts, Yodo1 helps game developers quickly adapt, publish and monetize their games in China with its API platform. Yodo1 has partnered with leading Western game developers to successfully enter and grow in China, including Robot Entertainment (Texas), XMG Studio (Toronto), Defiant Development (Australia), and HandyGames (Germany). Founded in 2011, Yodo1 is based in Beijing with a presence in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.yodo1.com and follow Yodo1 on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yodo1

About SingTel Innov8
SingTel Innov8 (Innov8), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SingTel Group, is a corporate venture capital fund, with its own set of decision making, approval and funding processes. It has an initial fund size of S$200 million. Innov8 focuses its investments on technologies and solutions that lead to quantum changes in network capabilities, next generation devices, digital content services and enablers to enhance customer experience. It works closely with the ecosystem of leading innovators, developers, government agencies, R&D and capital providers to bring cutting-edge technologies and solutions to the various markets the SingTel Group operates in.

Contact Information
Media Contact: Vanessa Camones, theMIX agency for Yodo1
Email Contact

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