Singapore's Mighty Jaxx bags investment from global VC firms, secures new global licensing deals

Mighty Jaxx International, an award-winning urban culture company that designs and manufactures collectibles and lifestyle products in partnership with global brands announced that it has bagged another $4.5 million in new financing to conclude its pre-Series A funding round, raising a total of $6.65 million to date as it looks to continue scaling its business.

KB Investment Co, one of South Korea’s leading venture capital firm and the investment arm of KB Financial Group, South Korea’s largest bank, led this new financing round and was joined by LA-based VC Greycroft Partners, through the GC VR Gaming Tracker Fund, an investment fund that is dedicated to supporting companies across the virtual reality, augmented reality, video game, and e-sport sectors. Existing investor SGInnovate also participated in the new round.  

With a fresh injection of funds from KBI and Greycroft, Mighty Jaxx will channel the investment towards the further development of MightyVerse, Mighty Jaxx’s proprietary technology platform.

The funds will also come in handy as Mighty Jaxx ramps up its production for the second half of 2020 as it onboards heavyweight entertainment companies, Hasbro and ViacomCBS’s Nickelodeon, on new global licensing deals.

Developing tech-enabled collectibles for the future consumer

Since starting out in 2012, Mighty Jaxx has shipped millions of products to collectors in over 60 countries worldwide to a loyal and passionate collector base but has over the past year been vocal about its intentions to diversify its customer offerings and evolve together with the needs of its target audience.

Mighty Jaxx embarked on this journey of technological discovery when it raised its first tranche of funding in July 2019 to develop the first iteration of its patent-pending tech platform, MightyVerse, blending the physical and digital worlds.

The tech-enabled collectibles have been rolled out in phases since the start of the year, with the target of shipping 5 million units this year.

Steven Hong, Principal at KBI, said, “The past few years have seen a huge growth in pop culture collectibles and Mighty Jaxx’s ability to consolidate global brands, artists and IPs across digital and physical products into multiple markets is unprecedented and has positioned them to be a global leader. We’ve never imagined that a small bedroom startup in Singapore would grow to become a company shipping millions of products to over 60 countries worldwide annually. We are incredibly impressed with Mighty Jaxx’s approach to innovation, their leadership team and share their creative vision”

In line with its vision of a tech-enabled future, Mighty Jaxx was also selected in October 2019 as one of only three Asian startups to participate in gaming giant Ubisoft’s Entrepreneurs’ Lab.

Participation in the Ubisoft programme has served as the perfect platform and incubator for Mighty Jaxx to begin developing innovative solutions for the gaming and entertainment sectors, and their early work caught the eye of GC VR Gaming Tracker Fund’s Jon Goldman, Board Partner of Greycroft Partners and concurrently Managing Partner of Skybound, creators of The Walking Dead.

Joe Yuan, Investor at the GC Tracker Fund, stated, “We’re fired up to partner with Jackson and his team to transform a classic offline experience into an online phenomenon. We love that Mighty Jaxx is aiming to reinvent collectibles.”

Global partnership deals

Since its founding in 2012, Mighty Jaxx has designed and manufactured collectibles and lifestyle products in partnership with global brands such as Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers, DC Comics, Looney Tunes, Sesame Street and more.

In the last 3 months, the Mighty Jaxx team successfully secured new global licensing deals to produce collectibles from Hasbro and Nickelodeon’s umbrella of globally recognisable properties including Transformers and Spongebob Squarepants.

These additions to Mighty Jaxx’s portfolio are a solid indication of the popularity of these franchises with collectors and the general public alike, and the trust in Mighty Jaxx’s global strategy. Details of each brand specific products and accompanying launches will be announced on Mighty Jaxx’s website and owned media platforms in due time.

Jackson Aw, Founder and CEO of Mighty Jaxx, said, “We are delighted to secure the backing of KBI and Greycroft. Their experience from both sides of the world will keep us on the right track and amplify our work as we continue to develop innovative solutions that redefine the way collectors consume content and view entertainment. As a D2C company, we believe our collectors’ experience will not be complete if we do not bridge the phygital gap, and we hope to put ourselves in an ideal position to significantly scale the business by fusing technology with our unique design concepts.”

“We are also very excited to have secured global licensing deals with key partners Hasbro and Nickelodeon, as they are a natural fit for our unique integrated vision of developing products from pop culture, gaming, and entertainment,” Jackson added.

Nurturing the next generation of creatives

A creative at heart, Jackson has always been passionate about building a community of changemakers, and through a jointly developed scholarship program with Singapore’s Nanyang Polytechnic beginning in 2020, Mighty Jaxx will help nurture innovation and co-creation with the next generation of creatives.