AXM Venture Capital has made a commitment through The North West Fund for Digital & Creative, an investment pot that it manages.

Social game developer Playdemic has become the latest business to receive a portion of the £15 million fund.

As creator of game franchises including Gourmet Ranch and Village Life, the technology company has attracted 16 million users.

Its new capital will now be put to work by continuing the development of Village Life and launching a new offering at the beginning of next year.

Paul Gouge, founder and CEO of Playdemic, comments, ‘This investment represents a significant milestone in the continued growth of Playdemic and our mission to deliver the best free-to-play games services to our customers.’

AXM Venture Capital’s funding injection follows on from a $4 million investment led by David Watson, one of the grandchildren of IBM founder Thomas Watson. Back then [David] Watson became a non-executive director at Playdemic.

Playdemic was founded in 2010 by Gouge, an entrepreneur who had previously created multiplayer online game Battmail and established Rockpol – which developed games for mobile licensing titles. Both organisations were subsequently sold to Eidos.

More on he North West Fund for Digital & Creative:

• First funding deal for Connect Technology Group
• Adaptis Solutions gets help from regional backer
• Camiloo and Autology take Digital & Creative Fund finance

David Smith, investment director at AXM Venture Capital, adds, ‘We are very excited to have invested not only in a market-leading social game developer – but also to be working alongside one of the most talented and successful management teams in the sector.’

The Digital & Creative arm of the £155 million North West Fund has now made two investments in a week. It also provided financial backing to GovToday, a business-to-business communications company which is based at Manchester’s MediaCity.