Meet a man on a winning streak.
Investors know Nix Nolledo as a winning bet—the guy they entrusted with over Php30 billion in capitalization and who in turn grew Xurpas—the Philippine consumer technology upstart he co-founded—into the largest listed consumer technology company in Southeast Asia after strategically acquiring numerous companies throughout Asia and the world: Hong Kong-based human resources mobile solutions company Micro Benefits, Singaporean mobile games studios MatchMe Pte. Ltd. and Altitude Games, Indonesian mobile content creator and distributor 9Lives, and California-based search engine developer Zowdow. Philippine companies within the Xurpas Group include human resources solution Storm Benefits, custom software developer and Globe telecom subsidiary Yondu, Inc., software consultancy Seer Technologies Inc., and enterprise solutions provider Xurpas Enterprise, Inc.
Entrepreneurs know Nolledo as an icon who has won the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 Philippines award and as an angel investor who can change the game and help them win.
Consumers know and play Nolledo’s games: Anne Galing, the game starring actress Anne Curtis, as well as other titles starring fellow celebrities Isabelle Daza (Trip ni Belle), Erwan Heussaff (Market Master Erwan), and Kim Atienza (Adventures of Kuya Kim), who, like Curtis, are co-investors in their games’ developer Xeleb Incorporated, a subsidiary of Fluxion, which itself is wholly owned by Xurpas. Other well known games include Xeleb’s Popstar starring Sarah Geronimo and Altitude Games’s robot anime inspired Run Run Super V and the fighting teddy bears of Dream Defense.
“What’s interesting about Xurpas is that in December of 2014, we became the first mobile consumer technology company to list in a stock exchange that’s headquartered in SouthEast Asia. So we actually listed in the stock exchange in December 2014. Since that point when we listed, we’ve made more than a dozen of investments and acquisitions. And we’ve grown our product portfolio to include enterprise products, HR technology products and a cool variety of other platforms,” he notes.
Nolledo reveals why investors have put their faith in Xurpas: “We’ve realized at Xurpas, my partners and I, that listing, going public with your company, raising money from a wide range of investors; both institutional and retail investors is a very very strong competitive advantage. Versus all of our other competitors, we immediately have a capital that’s greater than theirs that gives us the dry powder to invest and acquire companies to leverage of our next stages of growth. The second thing is that when we talk to corporate clients and possible partners, when we say that we are publicly listed, that elevates the surpassed brand in their eyes in comparison to other players in our space. So, more capital, greater public profile which ultimately leads to a stronger brand with a halo effect in the market. That combination gives us a very strong advantage versus other players in our segments. More markets outside the Philippines. We’ve invested in a company in Indonesia, we’ve actually invested in a company incorporated in Hong Kong but services the China market.”
Nix Nolledo reveals Xurpas’ game strategy for future growth. He declares, “We’re now moving from creating individual products to creating platforms to be more inclusive for third party products and services. So we won’t just be generating value from the code that’s written by engineers but value from the code that’s written by engineers in multiple communities. So more products in more markets really is what we’re looking forward to. The investments we’ve made give us the strength, the portfolio and the engineering bench to execute on our plans moving forward.”
