wooga funding

Berlin, November 12, 2009

Berlin-based social games developer wooga today announced that it has secured a further EUR5 million ($7.5m) in its latest round of funding led by Balderton Capital, one of Europe’s largest venture capital firms. Holtzbrinck Ventures, which provided funding earlier this year, has also participated in this round.

This latest investment will allow wooga to hire new talent, continue to develop top quality games and grow the company further. Roberto Bonanzinga, Partner at Balderton Capital, will also join the board of wooga.

Founded in January 2009, wooga (a contraction of “world of gaming”) develops games for social networks. Its first game, Brain Buddies, was released on Facebook in July 2009 and is currently one of the top 20 games on the Facebook platform with 6 million monthly users.

Roberto Bonanzinga, Partner at Balderton Capital, said: “wooga is a great early stage company, the kind of company Balderton loves to invest in. wooga has a dynamic and experienced management team, led by founder Jens Begemann, and it is based in Berlin, one of Europe’s most creative cities. Social gaming on sites such as Facebook is a key growth sector right now. We have full confidence in Jens’ ability to build a world-class team and look forward to working with wooga to expand its market further and build a global business.”

Dr. Lars Langusch, Partner at Holtzbrinck Ventures, said: “Since our initial investment in wooga a few months ago, the company has established itself as one of the top games developers for the Facebook platform. We are confident that wooga will continue to exceed our expectations.”

Jens Begemann, founder and CEO of wooga, said: “We are proud to have Balderton, one of the world's leading investors in social media and gaming, as our new partner. We also welcome further funding from Holtzbrinck, which provides a vote of confidence in wooga and its future growth prospects. wooga focuses on offering a quality user experience that provides a safe, rewarding gaming experience. By providing true value in social gaming, we believe wooga can achieve sustained long-term growth. This investment will allow us to hire more talented people in the coming weeks and months.”

wooga currently has a staff of 25 from 9 countries.

Job opportunities at wooga can be found at wooga.net/jobs.

About wooga

wooga (world of gaming) was founded in January 2009. wooga develops games for social networks like Facebook. Its first game Brain Buddies was released on Facebook in July 2009 and is currently one of the top 20 games on the Facebook platform with 6 million monthly users. wooga has two new games in late stage development that are due for release in the coming weeks. wooga has 25 employees from 9 countries and has been nominated for a German "Start-up of the year" award in 2009.

The company is currently hiring. Please visit www.wooga.net for more information.

About Balderton Capital

Balderton Capital is one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, it manages $1.9 billion in committed venture capital.

Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies, principally in numerous European countries but also in the US and Asia. Balderton’s investments span a wide variety of sectors including communications, consumer services, enterprise software and services, e-commerce, mobile, semiconductors, media and financial services.

Balderton invests in innovative businesses and approaches investment using the principles of teamwork and an intense dedication to building companies of lasting value. The investment partners combine international and Silicon Valley operational experience with company-building expertise.

Notable investments include Bebo (sold to AOL for $850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), ScanSafe (sold to Cisco Systems for $183m), LOVEFiLM (the home entertainment subscription service) and MySQL (sold to Sun for $1 billion). For more information, visit: www.balderton.com.

About Holtzbrinck Ventures

Holtzbrinck Ventures was founded in 2000 and specializes on early stage investments in companies working in the internet, mobile and new media industry. Their portfolio includes companies like Parship, GameDuell, MyHammer, and StudiVZ.