GGV leads Series B for China mobile gaming platform Yodo1

The company has now raised a total $18 million in venture capital funding. According to AVCJ Research, Chang You Fund committed $2 million in seed funding in June 2012 and then Singtel Innov8 led a $5 million Series A round in April of this year.

Yodo1 will use the fresh capital to strengthen its core business and support expansion into new smart phone markets - initially Japan and Korea, which rank first and second, respectively, in terms of Google Play mobile revenue by country. As a first step, Yodo1 has established a production studio in Seoul.

Founded in 2011, the company gained traction by helping Western developers create games that appeal to the Chinese market. It has co-produced a number of hit games available via Apple's App Store, Google Play, and China's top Android app stores, working with developers from the US, Russia, Canada, Australia and Germany.

Yodo1, which is based in Beijing and has a presence in San Francisco and Shanghai, claims to reach an active user base of more than 90 million mobile gamers. It has released 30 hit games over the past year and added 10 million new users each month.

"The convergence of mobile internet across global markets represents a dramatic growth opportunity. Yodo1 recognized this early on in bringing together Western developers and Asian gamers. Today they are in a unique position to leverage this trend to expand throughout Asia and to other top smart phone markets around the world - and we are proud to invest in their growth," said Jenny Lee, a partner at GGV, in a statement.

China's mobile gaming industry is a popular target for venture capital and some of these investments are beginning to pay off. Forgame Holdings - whose investors include TA Associates, Qiming Venture Partners and Ignition Capital Partners - went public in Hong Kong in October, raising $206 million. IDG Ventures and Temasek Holdings-backed I Got Games is looking to follow suit.

In August, Baidu finalized the $1.85 billion acquisition of 91 Wireless, a mobile app store and game operator, from NetDragon. The company had previously received VC funding from IDG, DT Capital Partners, iD TechVentures and Vertex Venture.

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• Topics
• Venture
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Technology
• TMT
• China
• Venture
• GGV Capital
• SingTel Innov8