HELSINKI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Grey Area, an innovator in mobile location-based games has raised a $2.5m round of financing from an experienced syndicate of games industry investors comprising Index Ventures, London Venture Partners and Initial Capital. The company was founded to create a breakthrough gaming experience using real world locations as the context for mobile games.
"The iPhone has already emerged as an immensely popular gaming platform," commented Ville Vesterinen, CEO of Grey Area. "However, we feel there is an entirely new category of games that can be built for today's smartphones. Our goal with Shadow Cities was to make the creative and technical leaps needed to make this a reality."
In Autumn 2010, the company launched Shadow Cities on the iPhone in a beta phase exclusively in Finland. The game leverages the phone's location to transform city streets into a battle zone for players who take on the role of techno-mages. Shadow Cities is free-to-play with additional in-app offerings. Within days of its launch, Shadow Cities became the top-grossing iPhone game in Finland.
"Mobile gaming is one of the most exciting and active sectors in consumer technology today," commented Ben Holmes of Index Ventures. "Of all the startups we met, we thought Grey Area had the biggest vision and the most gifted and passionate team to execute on that vision."
The company is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, where it is rapidly expanding its team of developers and game designers. There are also near-term plans to open a U.S. office. A new version of Shadow Cities with additional features and content will soon be released and made available globally.
About Grey Area
Grey Area is a mobile city gaming company using real world locations as the context for mobile games. The company’s goal is to enable people to rediscover and experience cities through games. Grey Area’s first game title Shadow Cities, a location based MMORPG for iPhone, was launched first in Finland and became the top-grossing iPhone game on its first day. Shadow Cities will be available soon globally. Grey Area was founded by Mikko Hämäläinen, Andreas Karlsson, Teemu Tuulari and Ville Vesterinen in 2008. For more information, visit http://www.greyarealabs.com and http://www.shadowcities.com/.
About Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a venture capital firm, founded in 1996, that partners with entrepreneurs in the technology, biotech and clean tech industries. The team is based in Geneva, London, and Jersey and will open a Silicon Valley office in the Fall of 2011. Index works closely with companies at all stages to build disruptive technologies and emerge as market defining global leaders. The firm is currently investing from the Index Ventures Seed Fund (2010), Index Ventures fund V (€350 million, 2009) and the Index Ventures Growth I fund (€400 million, 2008). Successful exits from the technology portfolio include Lovefilm (acquired by Amazon), Betfair (LSE : BET.L), Playfish (acquired by Electronic Arts), MySQL (acquired by Sun), Last.fm (acquired by CBS) and Skype (acquired by eBay). Index’s current investments include Adconion, AlertMe, ASOS, Criteo, Boku, Etsy, Factual, Flipboard, GroupSpaces, Mimecast, MOO, Moshi Monsters, Ozon.ru, Rightscale, Sonos, Privalia, Rightscale, Trialpay and viagogo. For more information, please visit www.indexventures.com
About Initial Capital
Initial Capital is a private venture capital fund that invests in seed and early-stage technology companies. Founded by a group of experienced investors with significant operating and investment track records, we work closely with the management teams of our portfolio companies to build category-leading businesses.
About London Venture Partners
London Venture Partners, founded by David Gardner, Phil Harrison, Paul Heydon and David Lau-Kee, is dedicated to investments in the web, mobile, social and cloud computer game industry. LVP is investing in start-ups and early stage companies that will help determine the future of interactive entertainment.