Singapore-based mobile games publisher, Potato Play, announced today that it has raised US$1.75 million in a seed funding round led by Beenext.
Play Ventures, which invested US$500,00 in the gaming startup’s pre-seed in January, besides Atlas Ventures, also participated in the latest round.
The startup plans to use the funds to scale its sourcing and marketing operations, as well as to invest in technology assets.
“The hyper-casual trend has peaked. Hybrid-casual games that combine the simple mechanics of hyper-casuals with the deeper monetisation and long-term retention of hardcore games are the next big wave,” said Potato Play CEO Vincent Low.
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“Asian game developers, with decades of experience in hardcore games, and the ability to execute and iterate quickly on trends, are an ideal fit to innovate in the hybrid-casual space. We use proven metrics and markers to identify these high potential games early on and offer win-win deals to developers to publish and scale them. With this seed round, we will be limitless in what we can achieve for developers,” he added.
Potato Play helps mobile games — a US$68.5-billion global business –created by Asian developers to take their titles to global markets. Through its “unique” game-sourcing and evaluation process, and an embedded platform SDK, marketing and monetisation capabilities, the startup has brought over 20 games to market.
The startup claims its games have been downloaded 15 million times, and includes hits like Merge Quest, Merge Rush Z, Crossing Gaps and Pocket Racing.
Beenext is an early-stage focus venture capital firm managed by serial tech entrepreneurs since 2015. The partners have hands-on capabilities and have been focusing on assisting founders in over 180 early-stage tech startups.
The VC firm aims to establish a platform of the founders, by the founders and for the founders across the globe primarily in India, South East Asia, and Japan with their own operational experiences, network and perspectives.
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Two months back, Beenext closed a US$110 million fund which aims to empower early-stage startups and founders in India and Southeast Asia.
Play Ventures is an early-stage gaming VC firm with offices in Singapore and Helsinki. It invests globally in pre-seed and seed-stage gaming startups and focuses on free-to-play mobile and PC opportunities as well as gaming services startups.
Atlas Ventures is an early-stage VC firm based in Singapore looking to invest in tech and tech-enabled businesses operating within fast-growing and overlooked markets in APAC. The fund’s area of focus currently covers interactive media, privacy & security, and B2B SaaS & enterprise tech.
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Image Credit: Potato Play
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