Tango’s messaging and entertainment platform has certainly been getting a lot of attention as of late, even with all the competition it faces. Its gaming platform continues to grow and flourish with hits like Road Riot (read our review here) and Black Jack Live garnering over 1 million downloads apiece on Android and iOS.
In fact, the app’s flourishing so well that it’s reportedly worth $1.5 billion USD and could be seeking a financing transaction that would involve early investors and shareholders selling shares to Ukrainian-born billionaire Len Blavatnik, who wishes to increase his stake. There could also be other buyers on board as well.
Blavatnik owns Warner Music Group, and first invested in Tango in 2011, when he led a $42 million funding round that valued the company at $160 million at the time.
to go from $160 million to $1.5 billion in less than four years is no small feat
Of course, neither Tango nor Blavatnik have commented on the reports, so it’s all rumor and speculation at this point. Still, to go from $160 million to $1.5 billion in less than four years is no small feat. The deal doesn’t officially exist, though, so there’s no telling how many investors are involved or how many shares of Tango they would each acquire.
Last month, Tango announced a secondary offering that would allow its employees to sell shares, and it’s possible this deal could be an extension of that.
Tango has over 200 million users and has been moving fast in the market. In fact, as can be seen by its recent $25 million global games fund for developers, it wants to move even faster and become one of the top players in the overly competitive messaging market. It’s also been making deals with the media (i.e. its integration with Spotify) and also launched a new Channels feature.
We’ve contacted Tango regarding this investment and will post updates as soon as they are obtained.
Tango is currently available for most major mobile platforms, including Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7.