Angry Birds devs’ new studio raises £0.5m from Gameforge and Flaregames founder

A new mobile studio created by four veteran Angry Birds developers has raised €700,000 (£550,000) in a new round of funding.

Kopla Games was originally founded last year by Mika Kuusisto, Janne Jaakkola, Ilkka Siik and Vilppu Tuominen, who all worked on Rovio’s flagship franchise before setting up the outlet.

Kopla previously raised €100,000 (£78,000) in pre-seed funding from Finnish investment firm Sisu Game Ventures and other supporters.

That total has been bolstered with the new financing from German angel investor Klaas Kersting, who founded games firms Gameforge and Flaregames and previously invested in startups including Supercell.

Focusing on action RPGs, Kopla’s first game is codenamed Project Nonstop and due for release in collaboration with Flaregames later this year.

The title is designed to be played with just one thumb, and supported by heavy implementation of metrics and feedback.

"We are all big fans of action RPGs and we believe the existing games on mobile have only touched the tip of the iceberg in their true market potential,” said Kopla CEO Kuusisto.

“We tap this opportunity by taking the long lifetime and immersive experience of the genre and make it accessible and appealing to a wide audience.

“Klaas shares our vision and we’re thrilled to get his extensive experience in gaming on board with Kopla.”