Recently it was announced that a London-based startup Tripledot, known for a well-known Solitaire app, Woodoku game, etc has accumulated $116 million which increased the London-based startup’s valuation to $1.4 billion.
Twenty Minute VC podcast fame 20 VC led this round of fundraising. 20VC is owned by Harry Stebbings. Other players in this round include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Access Industries and Eldridge. This round follows a Series A fund-raising in April 2021 which was of $78 million.
With this condition of series A there is a considerable raise for series B, and Lior Shiff — the co-founder and the CEO of the company with Eyal Chameides (CPO) and Akin Babayigit (COO) — said that it’s not to run the core business. During the end of its first year, Tripledot become profitable and scaled up to 30 million active customers monthly. Also during the last year, the revenues got tripled (but the actual figures are unknown)
According to Shiff, all these fundraisings are for M&A. Notably, acquiring innovative startups dealing with creative ideas is the strategy to go with developed mechanics for engaging monetization which are the bold skills of Tripledot as per Babayigit.
Shiff also said that they can now hire a lot of technology and expertise and hence they are setting up studios and using their platform in broadcasting those interesting games to a larger level. He praised Tripledot for having strong in-house game makers but also grieved about the lack of expertise in reaching large audiences or building them into a sustainable business. But now this capital will help them in achieving those lacking.
A recent popular gaming startup, Dream Games, (one of Babayigit’s angel investments) is aiming for the upcoming Pixar. Also, Shiff claimed that they would want to be the next Activision Blizzard.
Again a mere simple word puzzle game Wordle became extensively viral in January and proved that like casual games these startups can bring in audiences and users from utterly unexpected corners of the world. Adding to this they also proved how sometimes creating something unconventional can become more popular and successful as compared to any calculated business decisions.
It all started when developer Josh Wardle wrote a puzzle for his partner. Then he could be found on Wardle’s website (no app), he also never paid for or made any kind of marketing effort, but still, with the lucidity and dearth (one puzzle per 24 hours) and planned amount of challenge and reward mechanics, it flourished and found fans among a wide range of individuals that includes grannies, school kids and everyone in between. People reported that their elderly mother plays it on a computer and shares her results through very blurry photos.
As per Wardle’s interview, he received infiltrating calls from various investors, but was utterly surprised and not at all ready to think about the coming challenges and steps (saving up so that the game could manage the sudden storming of traffic that was sent to servers) since “Business” was never his idea.
But at last, he sold Wordle to The New York Times. According to Shiff, Tripledot didn’t think of buying Wordle, but their founders respected the idea of the use cases and possibilities of casual games.
He said his mother, his aunt played that game. Also, they wouldn’t consider themselves to be gamers but spend an hour on these games. The reason may be for a mental break, or in the waiting room of a dentist. According to him, they might be used to playing these games in puzzle books and are excited now to play the same on their phones.
Referring to Babayigit, Tripledot is not planning to develop web-only games, or to put out titles merely for growing audiences without any purpose of business, – the important message Wordle gave out: that in the real world to remain in the business of making money is the most crucial thing. Also, the avenues for development are never-ending and the long run welcomes variation.
Babayigit also said that according to them casual games are underserved. There is a huge potential in increasing gamers. Dream, Wordle and others have created about 2 billion gamers worldwide, and people are looking for innovative games and experiences. Babayigit said that Wordle proved this and the chance of revolution of ideas in this field is pretty positive.
And this is also the opinion of the investors.
Stebbings said that the growth rate and efficiency of Trippledot in constructing and planning new heedful games are unparallel. He added about the singular leadership of Tripledot and said that they have developed a growing operation which also keeps the quality commitment and friendly culture of the company which attracts the bright talents of the gaming world. He lastly added that they want to be a part of the Tripledot journey eagerly.
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