• Kamcord

  Participated · Series B · Dec 2014

  Kamcord operates a video network that lets people broadcast gaming action and other smartphone screen activity from their tablets and phones. The company is shifting to an "appcasting" strategy to let users livestream non-gaming apps such as Tinder, Instagram and other mobile experiences. Kamcord aims to expand beyond gaming to attract non-gaming viewers and grow its audience, which the article reports at 1 million viewers. It monetizes streams through virtual goods called "stars"—priced up to $80—that viewers buy for broadcasters, with Kamcord splitting the proceeds; the product currently does not run ads. Kamcord partners with existing online creators, including musical artist Redfoo and makeup creator Wengie, and has rebranded its site around topics like sports fans and YouTube reactions. Following the latest raise, its total funding stands at over $37 million. Kamcord is a mobile video game recording service that allows players to capture and share gameplay clips. Its core product integrates with game developers to surface recorded gameplay content in players' native languages. The company opened an office in Japan and plans a major expansion across Asia, beginning with Japan and then moving into China and South Korea. To support that growth it intends to triple headcount from 23 employees to somewhere in the 60s within a year. Kamcord has raised funding to support this expansion, including a recent Series B. For China it expects to use different infrastructure than Amazon Web Services, which isn’t ubiquitous there. Kamcord offers a developer SDK that enables mobile games to record, share and view in-game videos. The product debuted in 2012 as the world’s first mobile gameplay recording solution. Users now share one video every two seconds; over 1 million videos were shared in the last month, users have shared 5 million videos total, and more than 3 billion videos have been recorded since launch. Kamcord says it will invest in better discovery of mobile gaming content, including within its own apps. The company sees Asia as a major growth market and plans to leverage investor relationships to make inroads with developers there. The platform’s traction and usage metrics underpin its efforts to expand distribution and content discovery. Kamcord offers a developer SDK that lets mobile players record and share video of in-game sessions and view others’ clips on Kamcord.com. The team is adding social features — profiles and commenting — to turn Kamcord.com into a destination for mobile gaming content. The company is YC-backed, runs an 11-person team, and has built its in-game recording into over 115 games. Users have recorded one billion game sessions since the startup launched last year. Management says an Android version of its developer tools is in progress. Financially, the company had previously accrued just north of $1.5 million in capital and recently closed an additional seed round; the team has largely deferred monetization while it builds usage, though it has signaled potential future ad or brand-revenue plans. Kamcord offers a lightweight SDK that lets mobile gamers record in-game footage and share clips (notably to YouTube) with minimal impact on gameplay. The company opened its SDK about four months ago and has seen rapid adoption: the number of games using Kamcord has more than doubled and recordings jumped from three to seven videos per second in two weeks. Kamcord is focused on polishing its iOS SDK as the immediate priority while planning Android support in the coming year. The team is small and is being deliberate about engineering resource allocation as it scales the product. Kamcord plans to use its recent seed funding to cover payroll and expand the team, including hiring a designer and “locking down the team” for 2013.

• Supercell

  Led · Equity · Oct 2013

  Supercell is a Finnish mobile games developer whose small portfolio — chiefly Clash of Clans and Hay Day — uses a free-to-play model with in-app purchases. The company has grown rapidly since opening in 2010, scaling to about 100 employees and reporting strong monetization (Q1 revenue $179M and $104M net after expenses and Apple’s 30% cut). In April 2013 it was making $2.4M per day on 8.5M daily active users and grossed $100M in 2012. Supercell intends to use the new investment to fuel global expansion, targeting stronger footholds in the West and East, including Japan, Korea and China. Management will continue to operate from Helsinki (with some time in San Francisco), and co-founder Ilkka Paananen remains CEO. The company has avoided the public markets in favor of secondary sales and strategic investments to provide liquidity while preserving operational independence. Supercell is a Helsinki-based mobile games company organized as a collection of small, autonomous teams called 'cells' that develop games and deep features. The roughly 100-person company emphasizes extreme team independence; CEO Ilkka Paananen says he has no creative control once cells are constituted. It is the highest-grossing iOS game developer despite shipping only two game titles. Financially, Supercell reported $179M in revenue last quarter and netted $104M after expenses and Apple's 30% cut, generating roughly $2.4M per day. In the prior year the company grossed about $100M and reported around 8.5 million daily active users. Leadership said the company took funding to provide liquidity to shareholders, reward employees and avoid pressure to go public. Supercell is a Finnish game developer focused on browser-based titles; its debut game is Gunshine.net. The team is led by gaming industry veterans who have collectively developed more than 165 games across 12 platforms. The company has built a proprietary, scalable technology platform and a unique conversion tool to deliver high-quality game features across different platforms. Gunshine.net, released in closed beta in February, aims to bridge the gap between social games and massively-multiplayer online games with deep online gameplay and extensive social features. Supercell plans to enter open beta, expand its team, release new games and target additional platforms. The recent $12M investment from Accel Partners is intended to accelerate growth and support these plans.

No current team members are available.