The Helsinki-based entertainment startup continues to build up its mobile-first strategy.
Seriously, a mobile entertainment startup behind the Best Fiends game, announces raising $18 million in a Series A round. The round was led by Northzone – An early backer of companies such as of Spotify and Trustpilot.
Also Korea Investment Partners, Upfront Venture, Sunstone Capital and Daher Capital participated on the round that brings Seriously’s total funding to $28 million.
Best Fiends, the company’s first mobile game, was launched in October 2014 and it has been downloaded over 15 million times in total. The fast growth pace of the company got also the investors’ attention:
“Seriously is reverse engineering the typical Hollywood approach to create an entertainment franchise with Nordic gaming at the heart of it. We have been impressed by Seriously’s growth and team they have built in Los Angeles and Helsinki, and see extraordinary potential for disruption in the market,” says Bjorn Stray, Partner at Northzone.
While Seriously is planning to launch a trilogy of Best Fiends games, the new funding will be used to build out the production teams and to invest in industry-first marketing programs. One of the company’s biggest goals is to expand Best Fiends brand beyond the mobile game – and transform it into a global entertainment franchise.
“We think about Best Fiends app as a platform for our intellectual property, and since launching less than 10 months ago with a small but experienced team, we have focused on continually enhancing the experience with frequent updates featuring new characters, events and addictive gameplay,” says Andrew Stalbow, the Co-Founder and CEO of Seriously.
Best Fiends statistics from the first ten months
Seriously will also continue to expand in Asia, as they’re releasing Best Fiends for Apple Watch in the Korean market in cooperation with Incross.
“We are thrilled to now work with the talented teams at Northzone and Korea Investment Partners as we add more consumer and Asia expertise to support the next phase of growth,” says Stalbow. Also the second game of the Best Fiends trilogy is planned to be released later this year.
To widen their product selection, the company partnered recently with Kidrobot – the premier creator and dealer of limited edition art toys – to launch a collection of Best Fiends x Kidrobot vinyl toy figures.
