Adways makes strategic move taking a 1% equity stake in Gumi

As it looks to boost its business, Japanese headquartered mobile ad network Adways (TYO:2489) has invested in Gumi.

The monetary value of the deal hasn't been announced, but it's believed that Adways now has a 1 percent equity stake in the Japanese developer.

This would make the deal more of a strategic partnership than a serious injection of capital.

The move follows Adways' announcement of a deal with global ad network InMobi, and an investment in Korean analytics outfit 5Rocks.

A brave new frontier

Gumi is currently best known for its mobile F2P game Brave Frontier, which was developed by its subsidiary Alim and has been downloaded two million times in Japan and 1 million internationally.

As for Adways, it's looking to aggressively push its AppDriver smartphone CPI ad service and PartyTrack advertising effectiveness tool within the fast-growing Asia mobile market.