Thailand-based Playlab has secured US$5 million in Series B funding from venture capital firm Monk’s Hill Ventures in one of the largest game-focused deals in Southeast Asia to date. The funding will be used to expand operations in the Southeast Asian mobile gaming sphere. Playlab already has studios in Thailand and the Philippines while distribution is handled from Singapore.
Playlab has seen its staff increase to more than 100 from 20 in the last year to “keep up with game development demand”. Three-year-old Playlab is best known for its Juice Cube game series, a Candy Crush-like casual title. Playlab revealed back in May that Juice Cube had 1.5 million daily gamers, with over 6 million people playing at least once a month. The company claimed the two-year-old series had netted over $12 million in revenue to date, and it attracted the attention of Rovio, which co-developed a version of the title under its Rovio Stars arm.
“The gaming market in Southeast Asia is growing incredibly fast, and our actions are a reflection of the demand,” said Jakob Lykkegaard Pedersen, Playlab Co-founder and a key speaker of the recent Inside Games Asia Forum 2015 . “We already understand the gaming desires of consumers, so this funding will help us give the market what it wants. Now, we will be able to place bigger bets on games targeting the region. We expect to make a profit within two years.” According to Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm that provides market research and analysis, Southeast Asia’s mobile gaming revenue is forecast to exceed US$7 billion by 2019, or a 700 per cent increase within five years.
“As the gaming market matures in Southeast Asia, we expect to see an increase in the number of casual gamers too. Since getting to know Jakob and his team, Playlab are the best people to service the high-end casual gaming market and become the top game house in this region,” said Peng T Ong, Founding Partner and Managing Director of Monk’s Hill Ventures. Though there are many promising startup ecosystems in Asia, founders there have to cope with a lack of venture capital funding and mentorship. Monk’s Hill Ventures hopes to address those challenges with a $100 million SGD (about $80 million) fund that will provide early-stage funding and guidance from experienced entrepreneurs, including founders of Match.com, Zalora and Bubbly, to Asian startups that want to expand globally. The new firm currently has offices in Singapore and Jakarta. Monk’s Hill Ventures wants to help close the mentoring and post-seed stage VC funding gap for startups in Asia. While the firm plans to seek out startups throughout Asia, it will focus especially on ecosystems in Southeast Asia, where there are many opportunities for tech companies because of the region’s rapidly increasing mobile penetration rates. These cities include Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, and Manila. Monk’s Hill Ventures will provide portfolio companies with early stage and Series A and B funding and also support startups from other parts of the world that want to expand into Asia.
Source: TechCrunch, e27.co, Playlab
