SINGAPORE, 19 March, 2015 – theAsianparent, a leading multi-channel source of information on Asian-focused parenting today announced a multi-million dollar investment from Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd. The investment from Vertex will bring the company’s total funding to $4.5 million.

Founded in 2009, theAsianparent has rapidly grown into becoming Southeast Asia’s leading online resource for parents. With a readership base of over 6 million mothers across the region, theAsianparent has presence in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and plans to launch in India under the IndusParent brand.

“This new round of investments from Vertex and prominent angels, Teruhide Sato, William Klippgen and Hellmut Schutte, will help us expand theAsianparent’s presence in other key markets such as India and Sri Lanka. As the parenting demographic continues to grow, we realise that each country across the region has its specific needs in terms of the availability of a centralised source of information on parenting,” said Roshni Mahtani, CEO and Founder of theAsianparent.

With a sustained growth in revenue throughout its five years of operation, theAsianparent offers marketers one of the most targeted and largest platforms for tapping the “mums” segment. According to theAsianparent’s 2014 Digital Mum Survey, Asian mothers influence 89 percent of all household purchases.
“Asian mothers have gone digital, with over 80 percent of women in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia increasing their usage of the Internet once they become mums. These mothers are also going online via their smartphones. With theAsianparent accessible through all these non-traditional communication channels, we are able to provide marketers a more targeted approach in reaching the mum audience,” Mahtani added.

“Media has drastically evolved over the past decade. Content have become more ubiquitous – accessible in a variety of platforms and reaching audiences anytime, anywhere, when they need it. theAsianparent represents the new breed of media outlets with a non-traditional business model that offers great value for marketers, while providing highly-relevant information for very important demographics such as parents ,” said Chua Kee Lock, Group President and Chief Executive Officer, Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd.

Aside from building a new audience base in new markets, theAsianparent is also looking at expanding its reach in current markets. According to Mahtani, “In the past few years, we have also observed much more involvement of dads, when it comes to parenting. This expands our audience base to include another important decision maker in Asian households, the fathers. Our expansion will include building more resources for dads wanting to improve their parenting skills.”

theAsianparent generates it revenue from custom advertising and market research and employs over 60 people across Asia.

About theAsianparent.com and Tickled Media
Tickled Media Pte Ltd is the largest digital parenting publishing house in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore since 2009, the company runs theAsianparent.com, Kidlander.com and Pregnant.sg. The company’s flagship brand, theAsianparent.com, is Southeast Asia’s #1 digital parenting destination and reaches over 6 million mums in the region. The company is backed by venture capital from LionRock Capital, Tigris Capital and prominent angel investors. For more information, please visit www.tickledmedia.com

About Vertex Group
Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd (Vertex Group) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, investing in emerging companies and leading venture capital funds throughout Greater Asia and the US. Since 1988, the Vertex Group has been helping passionate entrepreneurs to build great global companies and helping  them realise the intrinsic values of their companies through strategic listings on key capital markets in the US, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and through acquisitions by industry leaders.

The Vertex Group has a base in Singapore and presence in Beijing, Shanghai (China), Taipei (Taiwan), Bangalore (India) and the Silicon Valley (USA).