E-book and e-reader retailer Kobo has received a financial shot in the arm with $50 million in new financing, including $13 million from its majority shareholder Indigo Books and Music, Canada’s largest book retailer. Kobo said the balance came from “leading institutional investors”, which it did not identify, and Cheung Kong Holdings, one of the original investors in Kobo when it was spun off from Indigo in late 2009.
As a result of the new investments, Indigo’s ownership has decreased somewhat, but it maintains its controlling interest at 51%.
"Kobo will use the new funding to continue its explosive growth internationally," Greg Twinney, Kobo's chief financial officer said. The company says it has 3.2 million users and people from more than 100 countries buy from Kobo every week. This is, at least in part, thanks to Kobo’s open cloud-based platform and device agnostic approach that allows people to download content to almost any device.
Last week, Kobo announced its plans to launch local content stores in Germany and Spain starting in May and dedicated online stores for France, Italy and the Netherlands this summer. Kobo already offers local content stores in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. This week, Indigo also launched the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet at its stores across Canada and online. The devices will come pre-loaded with the Kobo App.
Borders became a retail partner and started selling Kobo’s dedicated e-reader in the U.S. last May. When it filed for bankruptcy, some questioned Kobo’s e-reader’s chances for competing against giants like the Kindle and Nook, but the device is still available in the U.S. at Walmart and on Amazon.com in addition to still being sold through Borders.
Kobo’s catalogue contains about 2.3 million books.
