Yalla的语音社交赌注：阿联酋首家科技公司登陆纽交所，募资1.395亿美元

做的是什么生意

A voice-centric social networking and entertainment platform for MENA: the flagship Yalla app hosts group voice chat rooms (a digital majlis), plus casual games like Yalla Ludo with in-chat features.

启动资金：IPO of ~$139.5M (18.6M ADS at $7.50, September 2020); earlier private rounds not disclosed in the same detail

起因

Tao Yang, a ZTE executive who had run its Abu Dhabi office for years, founded Yalla in Dubai in 2016 (the Cayman holding company was incorporated in 2018), with product and engineering based in Hangzhou. His observation: MENA users wanted the social warmth of the majlis and café, but Western video-first apps clashed with local cultural norms.

经过

Yalla grew mostly organically on voice rooms and casual games, reaching 12.5M average monthly active users in Q2 2020 with 5.4M paying users in H1 2020, revenue of $52.8M (up 99.6% year over year) and net profit of $25.2M. It filed its F-1 on 2020-09-08 and listed on the NYSE on 2020-09-30, selling 18.6M ADS at $7.50 to raise about $139.5M, with Morgan Stanley and Haitong as joint bookrunners.

结果

The IPO made Yalla the first UAE-based tech company and unicorn to list on the NYSE, and shares opened sharply above the $7.50 offer price. The company continued to expand its games and chat portfolio across MENA.

可借鉴之处

本地化产品设计胜过全球默认：Yalla围绕中东和北非的语音优先majlis文化重构社交网络，达到1250万月活并实现盈利，未获西方验证即登陆纽交所。