INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Mighty Bear, a game studio startup that grew out of King.com former office in Singapore, has landed new funding as it readies its debut
title for smartphones.
The startup was founded by four former King.com staffers — Simon Davis, Fadzuli Said, Benjamin Chevalier and
Saurabh Shukul — afterthe gaming giant closedits Singapore office — inherited via the acquisition ofNon Stop Games —followingits $5.9
billion acquisition by Activision.Today, Mighty Bear team of 18 counts experience working withUbisoft, EA, Lucasarts, Disney, Gameloft and
others.
The startup previously raised $775,000 in a pre-seed round in early 2017, and this time around it has pulled in a seven-figure USD
The deal is officially undisclosed, but a source with knowledge of discussions told TechCrunch it is worth around $2.5 million.
The deal was
led by U.S.-based Skycatcher, New York hedge fund banker Eric Mindich Everblue fund, and M Ventures from Los Angeles
Others in the round include Singapore Atlas Ventures,Lev Leviev — who is co-founder of VK.com among other things — and existing backer
Global Founders Capital, which is affiliated with Rocket Internet.
&We&ve already got a good set of investors from Europe and Asia so we
realized we needed networks in North America, too,& Mighty Bear CEO Simon Davis told TechCrunch in an interview.
Davis added that, beyond
extending their reach for purposes like hiring, partnerships and more, they open up thepotential for IP and media deals further down the
road.
First thing first though: Mighty Bear is working to launch its first title, which Davis said will be anMMORPG
Right now, it is being secretly tested for scalability and technical capabilities among users in India and the Philippines with a viewtoa
full launch on iOS and Android later this year
Davis said the company plans to launch another title, too, with both games managed concurrently.
&We&ve basically taken a genre that we know
is monetized and engaged with hardcore users and tried to bring it to a large audience
Our goal is to takebig desktop experiences and streamline them into five-minute bursts,& he told TechCrunch in an interview.
You may not
know it, but you may have run into Mighty Bear concepts already even though it hasn&t fully launched a title yet
That because part of the research and development process includes creating and disseminating videos and advertising for mock games through
channels like Facebook.
That, Davis explained, can help Mighty Bear in all manner of ways, from basics such as figuring out what kind of
visuals or advertising approach gets engagement from users, to broader purposes such as understanding the types of games that people want to
play.
&The process helps witter down ideas to those that will get traction with users.If a game makes it through the various internal gates
we have, and to soft launch, then we have the best potential for it to perform well,& Davis said.
Developing artwork and advertising for
‘fake& games isn&t as obscure as it may sound
While it isn&t usual for smaller studios, it a practice that Davis said is common at huge game development companies — that in turn is a
reflection in the experience that the team at Mighty Bear has under its belt.
