Toyota's Taiwan distributor takes 10% of FunNow in $10M deal
What's the deal? Hotai MotorDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Taiwan's largest car distributor, has bought a roughly 10% stake in booking platform FunNow for $10 million. The company disclosed on September 22, 2026, that it acquired 9,090,909 preferred shares at $1.10 each, valuing FunNow at about $100 million.
What does FunNow do? It runs a real-time booking platform for urban leisure, covering restaurants, accommodation, entertainment, and family activities. FunNow counts more than 10 million users and over 16,000 partner merchants across Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, with overseas revenue now topping half its total.
Why now? FunNow signed an IPO advisory agreement with Taishin SecuritiesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → in August 2026, starting a one-to-three-year process toward a Taiwan listing. Adding a listed shareholder ahead of that scrutiny lends the platform institutional backing as it prepares to face the capital market.
What's the endgame for Hotai? Hotai is the Taiwan distributor for ToyotaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, LexusDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and HINODealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and posted record revenue for the first eight months of 2026. It has been pushing beyond car sales — its car-wash brand OpenHubDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → recently became the island's largest — and FunNow's high-spending urban users overlap with its core customers.
By the numbers: The $10 million is not FunNow's biggest raise; its Series B brought in $15 million. But this round sits in the 47th percentile of comparable deals by size, and the investor's profile matters more here than the sum — a public company on Taiwan's stock exchange carries market credibility.
The signal: The deal shows Taiwanese traditional-industry players increasingly taking direct startup stakes rather than waiting for the secondary market post-IPO, locking in a lower cost base early. For FunNow, the next one to three years are a window to prove itself — and for Hotai, to watch its bet play out.
Read more: inside.com.tw
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