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Seriously, a mobile gaming studio that splits time between Santa Monica and Helsinki, Finland, has just raised an additional $5 million investment, bringing its total investment to $10 million in the last year. In October 2014, Seriously launched its first game, called Best Fiends, which is similar to Candy Crush. Branding itself a “mobile entertainment start-up,” Seriously believes branded characters and storylines are the future of the mobile gaming industry. SGN and Scopely, two other local gaming studios appear to believe the same thing as they have been or plan to team up with Hollywood intellectual properties.[Seriously on a roll: Mobile gaming studio behind "Best Fiends" raises another $5M: Built In LA]
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Snapchat has waded into the mobile payment field. Snapchat users can now send cash to each other simply by typing in a dollar sign and the amount to be transferred into the chat window. The Snapcash feature is free and was created as part of a partnership with payments company Square. Currently, the service is only available to users in the United States, that have debit cards and that are over 18 years old. [Snapchat Now Lets You Send Money To Friends Through Snapcash Deal With Square Cash: TechCrunch] This week, Snapchat also started alerting users to the risks of using unauthorized third-party apps. Because Snapchat has no public API all third-party apps are technically unauthorized. However, a lack of public API hasn’t stopped a small ecosystem of third-party Snapchat apps from forming anyways. A month ago, thousands of compromising photos were leaked via a third-party app, in the so-called ‘Snappening,’ hence Snapchat’s warning. [Snapchat now warns you if another app saves your photo: CNN Money]
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Mobile gaming studio Scopely raised a $35 million Series A round. Coming two years after raising $8.5 million in seed funding, the company has grown to over 100 employees and has put six games into the top five of the Apple and Google Play apps stores. Known for bringing an HBO-style of development and promotion to the mobile gaming world, Scopely is now taking studio imitation a step further by looking to build games around films, TV shows and celebrity intellectual property. Los Angeles-based gaming studio and competitor SGN recently launched a companion game with 20th Century Fox’s The Book of Life movie and gaming studio Seriously is also developing its own distinct characters and storylines. Mobile gaming studios are increasingly looking to branded IP to set their games apart.[Scopely raises $35M to start developing Hollywood infused mobile games: Built In LA]
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HONK, a road-side assistance app, has just raised a $1.8 million round. A sort of à la carte, pay only when you need it version of AAA, the app can request roadside assistance for towing, tire changes, jump-starting, lockout service, and fuel service. The company said they have already signed up 20,000 truck operators and estimate a driver will arrive in 15 to 30 minutes after a service request has been made. HONK prices services from $49 (and up) and provides quotes including taxes and tip. The startups has raised money from investors including Paige Craig, AngelList founder Naval Ravikant, and LivingSocial founder Aaron Batalion, Double M Capital, Karlin Ventures and Venture51. [HONK launches, gains $1.8M to give drivers membership-free roadside assistance: Built In LA]
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Beats Music, the streaming music app purchased by Apple, along with Beats by Dre headphones, for $3 billion in May 2014, will be sticking around longer than most predicted. Despite media speculation of the app’s demise, the paid music streaming service will reportedly live inside iTunes. It will include the functionality of Beats Music, but most likely with iTunes branding. Earlier this summer Built In LA wrote Apple’s acquisition of Beats Music was being significantly undervalued, as the music streaming app is well made and comes with the music expertise of founders Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. [Apple’s Plans for Beats Music Start to Take Shape: New York Times]
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The Rubicon Project had a big week after buying iSocket and Shiny Ads, two advertising order automation companies for about $30 million mostly in stock. Technology provided by iSocket and Shiny Ads helps power a type of ad sale called “automated guarantee.” Currently, the Rubicon Project specializes in Real Time Bidding, a process that automates the pricing of online advertising. Automated guarantee will allow sellers to set prices for guaranteed audience impressions, so that buyers can discover and buy those guaranteed audiences. [Rubicon Project Buys iSocket and Shiny Ads to Automate Ad Buys: Wall Street Journal] The Rubicon Projet has also entered into a partnership with iAd, Apple’s mobile advertising unit. Advertising across Apple' mobile apps will now be accessible to brands via Rubicon's platform. [Apple Is Planning To Turn Around iAd By Venturing Into Programmatic For The First Time: Business Insider]
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