The world of advertising in the mobile arena continues being important for companies around the world, but it was once a challenge for countries like Vietnam to find platforms allowing mobile advertising. A company called Appota finally became the top mobile platform for Vietnam businesses in providing game publishing, advertising, and payment systems.
It didn't take long for Appota to reach 30 million users, not including partnering with 15,000 developers, advertisers, and merchants worldwide. With the demand huge in this part of Asia, it made Appota a powerful tool for businesses there. However, the growth of Appota isn't staying stagnant.
Recently, they signed a seven-figure investment deal with South Korean advertising firm TNK Factory to provide even more services and create a symbiotic relationship.
What Appota Offers Vietnam
As a Graduate of our Topica Founder Institute, Appota became the brainchild of Do Tuan Anh, a Vietnam-based entrepreneur we've written about before in our blogs.
He developed Appota when he studied through our Founder Institute, quickly turning his company into a major force in native Vietnam. This was over seven years ago, though we awarded the company our Most Disruptive Award just seven months after they opened.
Soon, Anh's company started offering gaming services and many other mobile products for all industries. They even started working with Google to become a partner in deploying the latter company's Mobile Ad Exchange platform throughout Asia.
Why Partnering With TNK Factory Matters
TNK Factory is out of South Korea, and they could see a major advantage to nurturing an investment deal with Appota. TNK Factory is also a mobile advertising firm, making the investment a perfect fit. They didn't waste time because Vietnam has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Many similar investors from South Korea want to make their presence known in Vietnam, but this partnership is the most advantageous.
The actual deal is with Appota's Adota, a secondary arm of the company. Adota expands on the Appota brand and offers online advertising services in Vietnam to help app developers promote their mobile apps.
Now the new deal helps Appota/Adota gain access to TNK Factory's advertising technology to help enhance their mobile advertising reach. Plus, they'll now be able to reach the East Asian market, taking them to the next level after dominating in Vietnam for so long.
Appota's Further Investment Growth
South Korea has become a good luck charm for Appota, especially since the company secured an undisclosed sum for its series C round last year from two South Korean investment funds. This was from Korea Investment Partners and Mirae Asset Venture Investment, respectively.
At the time, this brought Appota's funding total to $10 million, showing how much trust other companies have in their mobile services.
The funding has already helped them continue to grow, even right in the Hanoi region where they're based. Appota is even close to dominating 20% of the mobile market in Vietnam, showing a fast-track on continued growth.
What is the Future of Appota?
Employing just 100 people, the company now has big plans to launch multiple products around the world. When they announced this several years ago, they'd just received another funding round from Japanese and Singaporean investors.
With mobile technologies being the dominant factor in the success of every company now, you might eventually see Appota find inroads into bigger countries, including America.
Currently, the company offers three mobile media arms: The above-mentioned Adsota, Gamota for mobile game publishing, and Appota Pay for a safe mobile payment system.
We're proud of our Topica Founder Institute because it's had so many success stories like this. However, we can safely say Anh's Appota is our greatest Topica success story of all where a startup truly did change the world.
