The Hague-based startup GetSocial last week announced a 2.5 million dollar (2.3 million euro) venture investment in its monetizing platform for mobile games. With the money the company has a shot at expanding in the US and Asia.
The investment is done by Dutch VC’s Astor Participaties, Enabling Technology Fund, Slingshot Capital and Novamedia, VentureBeat reports.
GetSocial, founded in 2014, now raised 8 million dollar in total, from different seed rounds, an angel investment and funds in the form of convertible notes by Novamedia.
GetSocial: enabling engagement
The multi billion mobile game market heavily relies on revenues from in-app purchases in freemium games. Converting all those players into paying customers isn’t easy though. GetSocial has created an in-game platform for publishers to drive user engagement, for instance with real time communication with players and social invites. They can also promote any in-app items on activity feeds and track conversions.
“This funding will allow us to do all the things we need to implement our growth strategy and help us expand beyond Europe into Asia and the U.S.”, said chief product officer and founder Adam Palmer in a statement.
Flirting with other markets
To be more specific, the startup is looking for offices in San Francisco/Los Angeles and in Singapore, said CEO Reinout ter Brake to StartupJuncture. “San Francisco is an obvious choice. But L.A. is also possible, because of other markets we can use our tech in – think music and movies.”
That’s why GetSocial also thinks about the Chinese market, to be operated from Singapore. “Mobile is in China’s DNA. The e-commerce potential there is huge.”
This applicability to not just mobile gaming did not go unnoticed. Fun fact: GetSocial was approached twice last year to sell its business. But the team said “no” twice as well, said Ter Brake.
Bridging the funding gap
Days after the funding Ter Brake responded to the funding news in a very personal blog post. “After all it’s possible in Holland”, he wrote, pointing to the much suggested funding gap in The Netherlands. “You don’t see a lot of funding here from local VC’s beyond 2 million euro. I’d like to see more of that”, the CEO said to StartupJuncture. “It’s time for investors to wake up.” But you can’t just wait for an investor: “You need to be occupied with raising money constantly.”
With the plan for expanding internationally, Ter Brake still thinks The Netherlands is great for a startup. “As a country, I think we have a great regulation on expats. We were able to get smart people of many nationalities here.”