LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mobile entertainment network Scopely has closed a $55 million financing round led by Greycroft Growth Fund with participation from Elephant Partners, the new fund of Warby Parker co-founder Andy Hunt and former Highland Capital colleague and partner Jeremiah Daly; Evolution Media Partners, a partnership of CAA-backed Evolution Media Capital, TPG Growth and Participant Media; Highland Capital; Sands Capital Ventures; and Take-Two Interactive. Greycroft Partner Mark Terbeek and Scopely President and COO Javier Ferreira will join the company’s board in conjunction with the financing. The sizeable Series B will fuel Scopely’s further investment in its product slate and developer ecosystem. The company will continue to invest in its top grossing games The Walking Dead: Road to Survival and YAHTZEE With Buddies.
Scopely has been a rising force in the $25 billion mobile games market, growing revenues more than 500 percent over the past 18 months. “We have a differentiated, scalable model in the games industry that can create durable long-term revenue streams across multiple genres,” said Walter Driver, CEO and co-founder, Scopely. “Scopely’s growth has been driven by our focus on publishing and monetizing products which we can do systematically and sustainably. With Greycroft and our other world class investors, we have the capital and strategic guidance to take our model and leverage it across an even more diverse catalog and audience.”
The company has released six consecutive No. 1 games, including two new Top 10 Grossing games launched in 2015: YAHTZEE With Buddies, developed in partnership with Hasbro, and The Walking Dead: Road to Survival, with The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and his company Skybound. The Walking Dead: Road to Survival has been installed by more than 20 million players to date. Both titles continue to rank in the Top Grossing charts in both the Apple App Store and on Google Play.
"Scopely brings the technology, talent and monetization infrastructure necessary to launch products INTO massive global business that grow over time. Scopely is at the forefront of the consumer transition from a world of linear entertainment to a world of interactive entertainment,” said Mark Terbeek, Partner, Greycroft. “We’ve been tracking the company closely for years since our initial seed investment and have been incredibly impressed with the executive team’s ability to realize their vision and create more believers every step of the way.”
“We’re thrilled to be a part of Scopely’s continued growth as mobile entertainment takes center stage in media consumption,” said Andy Hunt, Warby Parker co-founder and Partner, Elephant Partners.
For more information on Scopely, please visit scopely.com.
About Scopely
Scopely is a premier mobile entertainment
network dedicated to offering the very best games across all genres.
Scopely brings the traditional entertainment model of blending in-house
development with hand-picked second-party talent and intellectual
properties to build out a catalog of carefully cultivated franchises to
mobile free-to-play games. Scopely’s games leverage its proprietary
platform for technology, distribution, marketing and monetization with
an all-star team of 200+ engineers, data scientists and product
managers. The company was founded in 2011 by social gaming entrepreneur,
Walter Driver; former Applied Semantics co-founder, Eytan Elbaz; former
lead software developer on MySpace’s Developer Platform, Ankur Bulsara;
and startup veteran, Eric Futoran.
About Greycroft Partners
Greycroft Partners is a leading
venture capital firm focused on investments in the Internet and mobile
markets. With offices in the two media capitals of the world – New York
and Los Angeles – Greycroft is uniquely positioned to serve
entrepreneurs who have chosen us as their partners. Greycroft leverages
an extensive network of media and technology industry connections to
help entrepreneurs gain visibility, build strategic relationships,
successfully bring their products to market, and build successful
businesses. Greycroft manages $800 million and has made over 100
investments since inception, including leading companies such as
AppAnnie, Baublebar, Braintree, Buddy Media, Collective, Extreme Reach,
Huffington Post, JW Player, Klout, Maker Studios, Plain Vanilla, Pulse,
TheRealReal, Trunk Club and WideOrbit. For more information please visit
the Greycroft Partners website at www.greycroft.com.
About Elephant Partners
Elephant is a venture capital firm
focused on disruptive software, internet and mobile companies. The firm
was founded in 2015 by Jeremiah Daly and Andy Hunt and has offices in
Boston and New York. Elephant is currently investing out of its $150
million debut fund.
About Evolution Media Partners
Evolution Media Partners
(Evolution) is a joint venture between Evolution Media Capital (EMC),
TPG Growth, the middle market and growth equity investment platform of
global investment firm TPG, and Participant Media, the global
entertainment company founded in 2004 by Jeff Skoll. Evolution will
partner with and invest up to $650 million in growth-stage media,
sports, and global entertainment companies. EMC is a merchant bank
focused on the media and sports industries, formed as a partnership with
Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and offering investment advisory, asset
management, industry research, and capital-raising services. In the
media rights space, EMC provides a wide array of advisory services
including strategic analysis, valuation and negotiation of media rights
and regional sports network planning and operational strategy. Since its
inception in 2008, EMC has advised on more than $44 billion in
transactions for its clients.
