Krafton Inc has acquired Rs 206 crore worth of primary & secondary share in indigenous social keyboard company Bobble.ai. This is the first rounds of financing for the Delhi based company in 2022.
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Krafton picks up 19.94% stake
Bobble.ai board passed a special resolutions to issue 2,375 preferred share at an issue price of Rs 307,029 per shares to raise Rs 72.9 crore or $9.2 million from Krafton Inc, filing show. before ROC.
Importantly, Krafton also bought 4,339 Series C CCPS from Affle for Rs 133 crore, constituting a 12.39% stakes in Bobble, according to Affle disclosure with the Nationals Stock Exchange.
Through a combination of a primary & secondary deal, Krafton holds a 19.94% interest in Bobble. According to the presentation, the main funds will go to business expansion, supplier payment & employee incentives.
Bobble.ai offers Indian keyboard that allow user to type in Indian languages & support over 120 languages & dialects like Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, and Punjabi among others. It also has a facial recognition feature that is used to turn selfies into GIFs and sticker. The Bobble app integrate with Facebook, Snapchat & Whatsapp and work in real time.
Inquiries sent to Bobble about the secondary transaction did not get an immediate response. We will update the story as they respond.
While Bobble has yet to file its financial statement for FY22, the company seven year operating income grew 2.1 times to Rs 2.31 crore in FY21. Its losses also expanded by 45% to Rs 12.3 crore during the fiscal year ended March 2021, according to its annual financial statement with RoC.
Over the past year, Krafton has been bullish on content, gaming and media segments in India and has made several bets including Nautilus Mobile, Pratilipi, Nodwin, Pocket FM, Kuku FM, dating app Frnd and streaming platform Crazy games. The South Korean firm claims that it has already invested $100 million in the Indian market.