SingTel, Softbank buy 82% in One97 Mobility Fund-backed TheMobileGamer

One97 Mobility Fund has clocked its second exit by selling its stake in Singapore-based mobile social gaming platform TheMobileGamer (TMG). The deal involves stake sale by existing shareholders of TMG and a fresh issue of shares to telecom firm SingTel and Japan's Softbank, after which each will hold 41.08 per cent stake.

TMG is a platform provider which is in the business of aggregating, distributing, licensing and developing mobile gaming software.

In 2010, the company raised S$500,000 from Innosight Ventures and followed it up with S$1 million in a second round funding from One97 Mobility Fund in 2011.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, managing director of One97 Communications, said that the fund had made decent returns although he declined to comment further. Sharma also said that One97 Mobility Fund expects to make a fresh investment in the coming week while one of its portfolio companies is set to raise money from a "marquee investor."

According to SingTel, it is acquiring 35.5 per cent stake from existing shareholders for S$1.8 million ($1.5 million) and subscribing 11.48 million Series B preferred shares for S$0.107 per unit, aggregating to S$1.23 million. SingTel is buying the stake through its wholly owned subsidiary SingTel Idea Factory. It also added that Softbank would purchase the shares under a similar agreement.

This implies that the total secondary portion of S$3.6 million ($3 million) and the primary of nearly S$2.5 million, would translate into post-money valuation of around S$7.5 million.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)