London Venture Partners backs social startup

Investment group London Venture Partners is jointly funding a Finnish startup-up studio, the company has confirmed.

Social dev outfit Supercell has been backed by Phil Harrison’s venture capital firm for the development of its new browser title, Gunshine.

Details of the funding were not disclosed.

London Venture Partners was formed last year by a quartet of industry luminaries, including Harrison – the man who helped shape the PlayStation empire in the west.

He formed the company along with former Atari chief David Gardner, ex-EA VP David Lau-Kee and Investment Banking guru Paul Heydon.

London Venture Partners has said it looks to fund “disruptive new technology in the online, social, mobile and web game space”.

Today Harrison said on his Twitter account: "Great start-up Supercell just went beta today with their new game Gunshine. Wishing them every success!"

The browser game is entering a closed beta, by invitation only.