Potato Play Raises $1.75M Seed Round To Publish Hybrid-Casual Games from Asia to the World
Singapore, 31 AUG 2020 - Potato Play, a Singapore-based mobile games publisher that aims to take hybrid-casual games developed in Asia to global success, announced today that it has raised US$1.75M in a seed round. The funding round is led by the global technology venture capital fund, BEENEXT. Atlas Ventures is participating, while Play Ventures, who had previously invested US$500k in a pre-seed round in January, is following on.
"The hypercasual trend has peaked. Hybrid-casual games that combine the simple mechanics of hypercasuals with the deeper monetization and long-term retention of hardcore games are the next big wave", said CEO Vincent Low.
He adds, "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".
The company has achieved early success with this method, leading to hit titles like Merge Quest and Merge Rush Z, with 15M downloads of their published games. Data from the Potato Play SDK that is embedded in the games is then further analysed to fine tune the game selection and nurturing process.
"Our founding team members have worked with the best in the business around the world in companies like Microsoft Game Studios, Digital Chocolate, King, Ubisoft, and Gameloft. This team brings together global expertise and local knowledge to find high potential games before anyone else. Raising this round in the middle of a global pandemic, we are deeply humbled, as well as energized, by our investors' confidence in our team and mission", said co-founder Kingsley Joseph.
"We were very impressed with the team, and their data-driven approach to identifying high-potential games", said Hero Choudhary, Partner at BEENEXT. "We expect to see a lot of game-changing innovation from Asian game developers, and Potato Play is in the exact right spot to identify and help scale the most high potential innovators."
The company plans to use the funds to scale its sourcing and marketing operations, as well as investing in technology assets.
About Potato Play
Potato Play is a Singapore-based publisher helping mobile games by Asian developers attain global success. Through a unique game-sourcing and evaluation process, an embedded platform SDK, and world-class marketing and monetization capabilities, Potato Play has successfully brought over 20 games to market. Potato Play's games have been downloaded over 10 million times, and includes hits like Merge Quest, Crossing Gaps and Pocket Racing. With a full pipeline of over 20 new games evaluated every month, Potato Play is looking to scale its success to the next level with this round of funding.
Developers interested in working with Potato Play can contact them through www.potatoplay.com or dev@potatoplay.com