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Playtox Closes $3M

2013-06-04
NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA, Leading mobile game developer of free-to-play browser games, today announced the closing of $3 million in funding from Runa Capital.
Playtox, the leading mobile game developer of free-to-play browser games, today announced a significant milestone with the closing of $3 million in funding from VC firm Runa Capital. The funding will be used to accelerate the expansion of Playtox's massively multiplayer online (MMO) mobile browser gaming titles globally including the U.S. and emerging markets as well as extending HTML5 technologies in their MMO line-up.

Playtox develops mobile browser-based massive multiplayer online games and for the last two years, the company has been profitable with its current game titles. Meanwhile, the mobile gaming market is rapidly growing with more than 500 million mobile gamers worldwide spending more than $9 billion annually. Playtox is set to tap this sector and with its planned expansion will allow gamers around the world to play on any browser/OS from any device including smartphones and feature phones. This new trend in gaming can be integrated into social networking platforms, spurring interactivity on a worldwide level.

Along with its new funding, Playtox is well-positioned to lead in the market of mobile browser-based MMO games with a solid base of 25 million registered users with almost one million monthly active users (MAU) from Russia, Southern Asia and Latin America. These numbers will continue to grow rapidly as Playtox develops games for new geographic regions. Playtox has several partnerships with industry-leading companies including a recent partnership announced with Opera Software making Playtox the chosen partner for mobile browser games in Russia and CIS. Playtox also brings strong revenue potential as it is not locked into app store dependence enabling new partnerships and fast growth.

"Runa is investing in fast-growing areas of the tech sector, and we recognized that Playtox has an opportunity to grow and position itself as a global leader in mobile browser-based gaming," said Serguei Beloussov, Senior Partner at Runa Capital. "Playtox is helping to advance the gaming industry by providing easy browser access to any user or partner without the hassle of lengthy downloads or incompatible devices. We see Playtox really excelling as they expand into new areas, and we are pleased to assist them in this growth and accelerate it."

"The support that Runa has provided us is instrumental, not only in a financial sense but also with their vast experience and know-how in the technology industry on a global level," said Artem Zinoviev, CEO of Playtox. "We're gearing up to take web-based mobile MMO gaming to the next level -- an international level, and with our new funding we will be able to scale our business much faster."

About Playtox
Playtox is the leading mobile gaming developer of multiplayer browser games. Playtox has 25 million registered users making it the leader in Russia and CIS regions. These users have already spent more than 65 million hours using Playtox games such as World of Shadows, My Farm, and Gangsta. For more information, visit www.playtox.com

About Runa Capital
Runa Capital is technology-focused venture capital firm whose founders have created or incubated companies with more than $10 billion in assets. It was established to seek growth opportunities in the rapidly growing areas of the tech sector with specific focus on cloud computing and other hosted services, virtualization and mobile applications. The key execution point is to select promising teams and drive and support them in the global marketplace, turning them into international champions. Runa Capital's investments announced to date include: Thinkgrid (acquired by Colt), Nginx, Ecwid, Jelastic, Station X, Cellrox, uBank, Eruditor Group, BigTime Software, Ecwid, StopTheHacker, Capptain, B2B-Center, Infratel, LinguaLeo, ClassedIn.com, Zopa, Mambu and so on.
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