Highland Capital Partners has led a $24 million (£14.5 million) Series B investment round for online social games company wooga.
Highland Capital Partners has led a $24 million (£14.5 million) Series B investment round for online social games company wooga.
Tenaya Capital and existing investors Balderton Capital and Holtzbrinck Ventures have joined Highland, which has an office in London, in participating in the funding round for growth capital.
Berlin-based wooga claims to be the world’s fastest growing company in the increasingly popular social games space. It plans to accelerate the production of a number of new products with the funding and increase headcount.
The company was founded in 2009 and produces games for Facebook. Its user base has increased this year from 14 million to 30 million monthly active users. Popular games include Monster World, Diamond Dash and Bubble Island. As part of the deal, Fergal Mullen, general partner at Highland, will join wooga’s board of directors.
Wooga founder and chief executive Jens Begemann comments that he aims to build the team to 150 employees by the end of this year, hiring two new employees each week.
He says, ‘When we started the company everyone told us the competition was too intense, we would never make it, and now, two years later, we have three games in the top 20, making us the only developer besides Zynga which has more than two games in the top 20.’
