In social gaming, it’s not all about Zynga and Playfish. Berlin-based Wooga (World Of Gaming) is raising $24 million, one of the year’s biggest fundings, for its own tilt at the hotly-regarded space.
The money is led by Highland Capital Partners along with Tenaya Capital, Balderton Capital and Holtzbrinck Ventures. This is a second round for Wooga.
Founding CEO Jens Begemann (announcement): “Social gaming is about to transform the entertainment industry. We have a ten-year vision to build one of the largest gaming companies in the world by 2020.
“For 40 years, computer games have been aimed primarily at young males – roughly 10 percent of the population. But we believe that playing is a core human need, and therefore we design games for 100 percent of the population. Our games attract more viewers than some of the biggest TV shows. Millions of users spend on average 20 minutes a day playing our games, returning several times daily.”
Wooga’s games include Monster World, Diamond Dash and Bubble Island. The company doubled its user base to 15 million this year and claims to be the number-three provider of social games on Facebook.
Meanwhile, Moscow-based Pixonic, another social games company, whose games are carried on portals like Mail.ru and Alwar, has raised a $5 million round from Ventech, Kite Ventures and TA Ventures, TechCrunch reports.