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NEW TO GROWTHWIRE? Growthwire is an investment and corporate venturing intelligence service meeting the unique needs of growth and alternative fund managers, CEOs and other business leaders. |
| Headline |
Online games social network retailer seeks funding. |
| Investment Stage |
Early-Stage
Private Placement |
| Sectors |
IT/Internet - e-Commerce
IT/Internet - Other
Media/New Media/Publishing - On-Line & Electronic |
| Deal Value |
100,000 |
| Currency |
UK - GB£ |
| Country/Region |
UK/Western Europe UK London |
| Summary |
Our client, initially backed by an Austrian government grant, was set up in mid 2008 and has now launched its global social network for online games. The business is focusing on the rapidly growing online video gaming market building a social games network of the future for games enthusiasts. The company has developed a social networking framework that provides game developers the opportunity to integrate their games into the portal. This gives our client the ability to create a games portal for MMO (Massive Multiplayer Games) gamers where users see their friends game actions displayed through a feed within this social network. Gamers therefore do not need to be active in a specific game to see what their friends are doing. They interact with a social community platform which informs them about their friend’s game achievements, enables them to meet and play with new gamers and compete against their friends through the company's ranking tool.
Our clinet will primarily partner up with game developers of web based MMO games, which are free to play but require virtual item purchases to proceed in the game of which our client receives a revenue share up to 40%.
Our client's portal is already in operation with a basic version of the product and the first two partnership agreements are signed with leading MMO developers Bigpoint and Aeria Games.
During the expansion phase, the company emphasis will be placed on closing additional game publishing deals, drive user acquisition through SEO and affiliate marketing partnerships as well as developing additional community and social features for our destination site.
The current funding amount of GBP 100K will bring the company from the current user base of 3,000 to an active user base of approximately 200,000 users, leading to substantial revenues within the next 10months. (Revenue expectations are based on existing numbers from browser MMO publishers generating revenues through virtual item sales.)
The company has additionally applied for EU research grants where it is a lead partner in a GBP3M project. (Other partners in this project include Imperial College London, Bigpoint, University of Bremen; Notification about EU jury outcome will be in July, 2009).
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