German startup, Scoreloop AG raises seed investment from Target Partners
It’s no doubt that social gaming features are becoming a standard across iPhone games. From card games with your buddies on Zynga’s Live Poker, to musical performances with Smule’s Leaf Trombone – iPhone games are becoming more and more social.
German startup, Scoreloop AG, which develops a platform for game developers to easily incorporate these social gaming elements, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Munich based, Target Partners.
With social elements quickly becoming the norm in mobile and Internet gaming, new developers need to figure out how to make their games social in order to compete with companies like Zynga and Smule. That’s where Scoreloop comes in.
Olaf Jacobi of Target Partners said, “Mobile devices connect people, Scoreloop connects gamers on mobile devices. The market is huge and growing. Scoreloop’s technology is unique and creates a worldwide networking effect.”
Scoreloop doesn’t develop games, it's created a free SDK which allows developers to implement social gaming features with a few lines of code. Once these lines of code are added to a game, Scoreloop allows players to find opponenets from friends in address books, social networks, and email addresses. During challenges, gamers are awarded virtual points which they can either win or lose. Additional points can be bought from Scoreloop and the business model is revealed. When these points are bought through whichever game it is, Scoreloop takes a cut of the revenue with its partners/developers who used the platform in their games.
Scoreloop, which was founded in 2008, currently only works across iPhone games. It plans to add other platforms like Android and Java in the near future.
Related Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs
Zynga
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Zynga is the largest social gaming company with 8.5 million daily users and 45 million monthly users. Zynga’s games are available on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Yahoo! and the iPhone, and include Texas Hold’Em Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Vampires, Street Racing, Scramble and Word Twist. The company is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, IVP, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, Avalon Ventures, Pilot Group, Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel. Zynga is headquartered at the Chip Factory in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.zynga.com.
Smule
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Smule develops interactive sonic applications for the iPhone and other technology platforms. Smule is developing the new sonic network, connecting users across the globe through expressive audio. Smule's Ocarina, I Am T-Pain, and Leaf Trombone have set the standard for iPhone applications, combining innovative uses of the hardware with compelling social experiences.