Playlab unlocks $5M funding to be top mobile gaming player in Southeast Asia

Bangkok-based mobile game development studio Playlab has secured US$5 million for its series B round, it announced today.

The investment came from Southeast Asia-focused venture capital firm Monk’s Hill Ventures. It’s the first external investment for the game developer, which has relied on self-funding and its own revenue so far.

“Prior to this, we made most of our revenue in Western markets, but due to our location we have followed Southeast Asia for some time,” Jakob Lykkegaard, co-founder and CEO of Playlab, tells Tech in Asia. The company sees an opportunity to get in on the burgeoning mobile games market in the region.

Jungle Cubes is the latest game developed and published by Playlab.

According to a report by international consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, mobile gaming revenue in Southeast Asia is expected to surpass US$7 billion by 2019. Playlab feels it’s in the right place to take advantage of this on a large scale.

To that end, the company will use the funding to expand its operations in the region. “We are looking into several deals [here],” Jakob says. “Everything from IP and new studios to market grab. [The] first step is to find the smartest people in each country and take it from there.”

Playlab is primarily known for Juice Cubes, a puzzle game for iOS and Android in the vein of Candy Crush. Registered in Hong Kong, it operates out of two studios at the moment. The home base is Thailand, while a second team works in the Philippines, after Playlab acquired local studio Anino Games in July 2014.

Over the last year, Playlab says it has increased its staff from 20 to 100 people in order to keep up with development demands. The company plans to further grow its footprint in Southeast Asia, hoping to become the “go-to partner” in the region. Jakob would not share information on active players or revenue, but Juice Cubes had over 20 million downloads with 1.5 million to 2 million active users per day back in May 2014.

See: The 3 things Pocket Playlab thinks an indie studio needs to focus onThe relationship with Monk’s Hill will bring some changes not only in the company’s day-to-day, but also in its ambitions. “[Bootstrapping] meant that we could focus more on making great games and tools,” Jakob says. “However, investors challenged us to think bigger.”

Juice Cubes was published by mobile game stalwart and proud parent of Angry Birds Rovio, but Playlab is better off doing its own publishing now, which will include an entirely in-house relaunch of Juice Cubes, Jakob says. “We would love to one day help Rovio build [its] market in Southeast Asia though,” he quips.