Hyper-casual mobile game developer, MadBox, raises $16.5m in funding

French mobile gaming startup firm, MadBox, has raised $16.5 million in Series A funding in a bid to broaden its mobile game portfolio.

The funding round was led by venture capitalists, Alven, and will be used to open a new studio in Barcelona as well as expand development into more genres.

Previously, MadBox has focused on hyper-casual titles such as Stickman Hook, Sausage Flip, and Idle Ball Race. Similar to other hyper-casual developers, MadBox tends to reuse assets from one game for another, as well as tries to apply similar methods when it comes to user acquisition and marketing. It’s a concept that’s been successful so far with MadBox having three games in the top 10 charts in the US at one point, as well as generating 100 million game downloads overall.

The company currently has 30 to 40 employees and hopes to tackle less casual games in future, while maintaining its slow but steady growth.

“We are a generation of friends who have worked for well-known casual game studios. And we all think that big game productions will have to become simpler so that people can play them like casual games — and vice versa,” explained CEO and co-founder Jean-Nicolas Vernin to TechCrunch.

MadBox was previously the result of a larger of two small Paris-based game studios in July 2018 with its first title, Dash Valley, released a couple of months later.

With plans to expand into idle games, as well as less casual games, and more hyper-casual titles, it’s likely that MadBox hopes to become a much bigger player in the near future.

Story by Jennifer Allen