True North Energy Enters Into $1.7 Million Convertible Debt Funding And Acquires Leading Korean Technology Developer Kryptonite
SPRING, TX / ACCESSWIRE / January 8, 2018 / True North Energy Corp. (OTC PINK: TNEN) ("True North"), announced today that it has acquired 100% of the common shares in South Korea's leading digital media company, Kryptonite Korea Limited ("Kryptonite").
Kryptonite owns a diverse digital intellectual property portfolio and operates a variety of social media applications. The company is specialized in developing leading smartphone consumer internet applications, primary for social entertainment. These applications are specifically designed to be used on very low-end hardware, targeting the expansive user base in the emerging markets.
The acquisition of Kryptonite was in consideration for 28,331,197 shares of restricted common stock of True North and $25.000 cash. It is anticipated to be the first of a series of roll-ups to transform True North into the next generation Social-Entertainment-Games platform for all emerging markets. A suite of applications is expected to be launched in 2018 to provide a sustainable solution in the World's fastest-growing markets of South East Asia and South Asia, and other underserved markets.
True North's CEO, William Simmons, is very pleased to announce the planned appointment of serial entrepreneur and CEO of Kryptonite, Mr. Chunhyok Chonq, as CTO of True North. "Mr. Chonq and his Kryptonite engineering team have created tremendous value for shareholders in Korea's tech space by achieving rapid market dominance in chat, dating, live social video gaming and e-commerce applications - changing the way Koreans interact today.
True North's strategy is to expand Kryptonite's success beyond Korea and create a vibrant mobile platform for Southeast Asia, where over 90% of current users access the Internet via smart phone only. Consumers in this region spend nearly four hours per day on their mobile devices - double the daily average time compared to users in the United States. These incredible levels of engagement and the continuous acceleration of e-commerce in the region have led to a sizable opportunity for True North's new business focus."
Subject to the completion of the transaction, True North plans to add another highly experienced member of management by appointing Mr. Steven Goh to the board of directors. Mr. Goh has served in executive roles on numerous successful Silicon Valley, Australian and Southeast Asian tech enterprises, understanding the local context of the region and has to date attracted over $ 100 Million of equity investments in his ventures.
True North also announces that it has completed a $0.7 Million placement of convertible debt. Additionally, subject to various closing conditions True North has a further commitment in place to sell an additional $1.0 Million in convertible debt. The majority of the structured notes will be converted into common stock of True North automatically on April 30, 2018, or when the fully diluted market capitalization of True North has exceeded $50 Million - whichever occurs sooner.
About Kryptonite Korea Limited
Kryptonite and its CEO, Chunhyok Chong have a large universal footprint in engineering social applications for major industry players, such as Time Warner for its Cartoon Network and Samsung for its Galaxy devices. Early in his career, Mr. Chong was the lead architect at SK Telecom for the music streaming service Melon, which was later spun out from SK Telecom and re-named Loen Entertainment. Melon rapidly became Korean's market leading application for Loen Entertainment ("Loen"). Publicly listed Kakao Group (035720: Korea SE) later acquired 76.4% of Loen for $ 1.55 Billion.
After Mr. Chong's success with Melon, he developed the e-commerce blockbuster service WeMakePrice ("WMP”), becoming South Korea's highest turnover e-commerce and advertising portal shortly after going live. Subsequently, he launched South Korea's social media platform Wonderpeople ("WP"), which after integrating into the e-commerce group portfolio, rapidly gained a user base greater than 10% of South Korea's entire population. WP funded its further growth via $ 85 Million in venture financing, led by online gaming industry leader Nexon Group (TYO:3659). It has since increased its user base to over 10 Million subscribers in South Korea - home to 51 Million citizens. After his departure at WP, Mr. Chonq created Kryptonite.
About True North Energy Corporation
Traditionally, True North Energy Corporation has engaged in the identification, acquisition and development of oil and gas properties. Through its subsidiary, TN Energy Corp, a Texas Corporation, the company holds overriding royalty interests on oil and gas properties located in Colorado and Oklahoma. Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, True North Acquisition Corp, the Company intends to consolidate and ultimately scale-up digital operations, focusing primarily on the immense Social, Gaming and Dating market, for low end Android users in South and Southeast Asia, which remain the world's fastest-growing smart-phone markets.
Contact
CEO William Simmons
True North Energy Corporation
24624 I - 45 North Suite 200
Spring, TX 77386
[email protected]
Phone + 1 281 719 1996
This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including information about management's view of True North's future expectations, plans and prospects. In particular, when used in the preceding discussion, the words "believes," "expects," "intends," "plans," "anticipates," or "may," and similar conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Any statements made in this news release, other than those of historical fact, about an action, event or development, are forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the results of True North, its divisions and concepts to be materially different than those expressed or implied in such statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof. True North cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Finally, True North undertakes no obligation to update these statements after the date of this release, except as required by law, and also takes no obligation to update or correct information prepared by third parties that are not paid for by True North.
SOURCE: True North Energy Corporation