November 10, 2009
Wooga raises €5 million for social gaming
Third social gaming startup with big financial news in one week: social gaming just got huge
On Monday of this week, Electronic Arts acquired social gaming startup Playfish for at least $275 million in cash, with extra bonuses in the future depending on the company's success. Then on Wednesday, Playdom announced the closing of a $43 million round of funding on a $260 million pre-money valuation. If that is not enough to convince the world that social gaming has arrived, then consider that just one day after the Playdom news, another social gaming startup has closed its own round of funding.Wooga, a Berlin-based social gaming startup currently focused on designing games for Facebook, just announced the closing of €5 million (about $7.5 million) in new funding. Balderton Capital led the round, with support from previous backer Holtzbrinck Ventures.
Though the amount of the investment might seem small when compared with Playdom's recent funding and the price paid for Playfish, Wooga, which
launched in January of this year, released its first and only game, called Brain Buddies, just four months ago. According to Wooga, however, Brain Buddies has already registered 6,000,000 players in over 200 countries and is currently listed in Facebook's top twenty titles. The company has logged over 500 million minutes of game play since the game's launch.Clearly, Wooga is on its way.
Besides Brain Buddies, Wooga has two new games approaching completion which will be announced in the coming weeks.
A 25-person team, Wooga will use its new funds to make some more hirings and to expand the company.
Related Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs
Playfish
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Playfish is a social games company that creates games for people to play together.
Founded in October 2007 by casual and mobile games veterans and backed by $3M in seed funding, we believe games are more fun when played with friends and family. So we are working on combining the best elements of casual games, social networks, MMOGs and virtual worlds to create entirely new, more social ways of enjoying great games together.
Traditional computer games focus on standalone game play on consoles, your PC or on your mobile. Games that do allow you to play together with others online normally require you to buy the game, go online and try and find like-minded new friends who are also playing the game. This is something that usually only the most dedicated gamers are prepared to do.
Our social games are different. Social games allow you to play together with real-world friends and family using the infrastructure built by social networks. This is in some ways a return to the roots of games. You play with the same people you would play cards, board games or go bowling with in the real world. Sharing the game experience with friends makes it more compelling and fun.
At Playfish we believe social games are a big part of the future of the video games industry, and are working hard to be the leading company in this emerging sector.
Playfish is headquartered in London, UK with offices in Beijing, China and Tromsø, Norway.
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.
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November 9, 2009