China’s Ourpalm invests $2.3m in Garfield dev

Chinese mobile game publisher Ourpalm has invested $2.3m into Garfield’s Escape developer Animoca Brands.

The move sees the publisher take an 11.1 per cent stake in the Hong Kong-based studio, valuing it at around $28m. There is also an option in the deal for further investment of up to $5m should the share price reach 150 per cent of the current price of its investment.

Ourpalm co-CEO Steven Hu has been appointed to the Animoca board as non-executive director.

The two companies had already been working together after agreeing a distribution partnership in May for the Doraemon Gadget Rush game.

Animoca’s portfolio of mobile games includes IP based on Garfield, Ultraman and Doraemon. To date its titles have been downloaded more than 130 million times.