Scopely

Scopely is a touchscreen entertainment network founded in 2011[1] based in Los Angeles.[2] Through its developer program,[3] Scopely partners and collaborates with elite game developers and global entertainment companies to bring industry-leading distribution and monetization technology to free to play games.[4][5]

History

Scopely was founded in 2011 by social gaming entrepreneur, Walter Driver, former Applied Semantics co-founder, Eytan Elbaz; former lead software developer on MySpace's Developer Platform, Ankur Bulsara, and startup veteran, Eric Futoran.

In February 2013, Scopely announced the first six partner studios in its developer network.[6] While working with one of Scopely's first partners, Scopely boosted New Zealand Studio Rocket Jump’s Mini Golf MatchUp game to over 10M downloads one month.[7] In 2013, the Scopely grew from 30 employees to 80 [8] and was named by Entrepreneur as one of 30 startups to watch [9] [10] In 2014, Scopely brought in former Disney Executives Javier Ferreira as Chief Operating Officer [11] and Tim O'Brien as Chief Revenue Officer.[12]

To date, Scopely has released nine games, with Dice with Buddies and Mini Golf MatchUp being early successes. Scopely has had four consecutive #1 iPhone games on the US download chart.[13] In 2014, Scopely announced a long-term strategic publishing partnership[14] with Space Inch, the indie mobile developer behind Disco Bees, Make it Rain and Say the Same Thing.[15] In March 2015, Scopely signed a multi-year partnership with Kung Fu Factory to create mobile games.[16][17] In May 2015, Scopely signed a multi-year strategic partnership with Digit Games, Ireland's largest games developer.[18]

In July 2015, Scopely brought in former General Manager at Kixeye Bernard Chen as GM & VP of Product.[19] In September 2015, Scopely also hired esteemed analytics executive Steve Seoane as SVP, Publishing Platform.[20] In October 2015, Scopely hired previous vice president of talent at educational technology company Coursera and former vice president of talent and talent acquisition role at Netflix, Jessical Neal as Chief People Officer.[21]

In August 2015, Scopely ranked #9 on Inc.'s List of the 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies in America.[22] In November 2015, Scopely reported a revenue run rate of $150 million[23] and announced a strategic partnership and investment in Redemption Games. Redemption was founded by former SGN developers Michael Witz and Dan Lin, the team behind the hugely successful game Cookie Jam, which has seen more than 60M downloads and has consistently been a top-grossing game in the App Store. [24]

Notable Games

In January 2012, Scopely launched a #4 game in the App Store, Dice with Buddies.[25] In July 2012, Scopely launched its first fully internal game which hit the #5 spot in the App Store, Jewels with Buddies.[26] In October 2012, Scopely launched Bubble Galaxy With Buddies, which reached the number one[27] overall app in the App Store.

In April 2013, Scopely launched Mini Golf MatchUp.[28] The game was number one in the Apple App Store in 28 countries and the number one app on both the iPhone and the iPad in the U.S.[29] In September 2013, Scopely launched a #1 overall app in the App Store, Wordly. Wordly was the first game with single-player mode developed by Scopely.[30] In November 2013, Scopely launched the only officially licensed Skee-ball game, Skee-ball Arcade which reached the #1 overall App in the App Store.[31]

In June 2014, Scopely launched Slots Vacation, a top-50 grossing game in the App Store.[32] In July 2014, Scopely acquired Space Inch and Andy Ross’ Disco Bees and added Make it Rain to Scopely’s ad network.[33]

In April 2015, Scopely partnered with Hasbro to launch the only officially-licensed Yahtzee game Yahtzee With Buddies on iOS,[34] Android[35] and the Apple Watch.[36][37] Yahtzee with Buddies saw 1 million downloads in the first four days and over 10,000 downloads an hour.[38]

In August 2015, Scopely partnered with The Walking Dead series creator Robert Kirkman and Skybound Entertainment Skybound Entertainment to create The Walking Dead: Road to Survival, the first free-to-play mobile game based on the wildly popular graphic novels. The game saw 4M downloads in a week, hit the Top 25 Grossing Chart on the Apple Store and became the 6th consecutive #1 game released by Scopely.[39][40][41][42][43]

Funding

In 2013, Scopely raised[44] a seed round of $8.5 million. Investors included: New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Anthem Venture Partners, The Chernin Group, Felicis Ventures, Greycroft Partners, former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, TechStars CEO David Cohen, Factual CEO Gil Elbaz, Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow, ShoeDazzle CEO Brian Lee, Burstly CEO Evan Rifkin, LiveRamp CEO Auren Hoffman, Demand Media President Michael Blend and former Techstars NY Managing Director David Tisch along with numerous other angel investors.[45]

In 2014, Scopely raised a $35 million Series A Funding Round[46][47][48] from investors including Evolution Media Capital, Highland Capital Partners, SVP of Media at GoPro Zander Lurie, CEO of Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp Jeff Stibel, Former CEO of AT&T David Dorman, and CEO of Oculus VR Brendan Iribe, amongst others. Existing investors participating included Greycroft Partners, The Chernin Group, Anthem Venture Partners and Sands Capital.

As of 2015, Scopely has raised $43M to-date.

Awards

Top 30 Startups to Watch, Entrepreneur Magazine, 2013 [49]

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® Finalists, Ernst & Young, 2013 [50]

Gaming Insiders 30 under 30, Gaming Insiders, 2013 [51]

Empact100, Empact Showcase, "Largest Potential" 2013 [52]

SoCalTech 50 Up and Comers List, 2013 [53]

The Top 100 Startups in LA, 2015[54]

Scopely ranked #9 on Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing Companies in America, 2015[55]

External links

References

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  2. "Scopely". Crunchbase. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
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  4. Gaudiosi, John. "Scopely Lures New Game Developers To Android". Tegrazone. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  5. LaPorte, Nicole (24 September 2013). "Scopely finds hit apps the same way Hollywood lands blockbusters". Fast Company. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  6. Thompson, Mike. "Scopely partners with five studios for developer network, including Double Fine". InsideSocialGames. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  7. Shu, Catherine (21 May 2013). "Scopely Boosts New Zealand Studio Rocket Jump’s Mini Golf Matchup To Over 10M Downloads In A Month". Techcrunch. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  8. Lori, Kozlowski. "Mobile Entertainment: A Startup Network For Interactive Play". www.forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
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  26. WithBuddies. "Jewels with Buddies". www.withbuddies.com. Scopely. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  27. "Bubble Galaxy with Buddies Ranking". Appannie. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
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  29. "MiniGolf Match Up Ranking". Appannie. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
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