Montreal-Based Mobile Game Studio Gamerizon Closes Five Million Dollars Investment Round
Montreal-Based Mobile Game Studio Gamerizon Closes Five Million Dollars Investment Round
The studio plans to create over 100 jobs in the next 24 months
Montreal, September 15, 2011 — Gamerizon, a Montreal-based studio specialized in mobile games development and responsible for the very successful Chop Chop™ franchise on the iOS platform, announced this morning that it closed a five million dollars investment round with a prestigious syndicate led by Vanedge Capital and including Inovia Capital.
This private investment will allow Gamerizon to significantly expand its employee base with 100 new hires planned over the next 24 months and improve its product offering in both breadth and scope.
“We’re extremely proud to be associated with such quality investment firms as Vanedge and Inovia as we scale up operations and leverage our Chop Chop ™ franchise over numerous social and mobile platforms including Facebook, iOS, Android and Windows Mobile. They bring phenomenal gaming expertise and are established leaders in digital investments,” said Alex Sakiz, CEO, Gamerizon.
“We are excited about our investment in Gamerizon. The team has built good momentum and has started to emerge as a pre-eminent developer of mobile games,” said Divesh Sisodraker, Partner, Vanedge Capital. “We have made four investments in our fund, two have been inMontreal, and Gamerizon is our largest investment here to date. We are strong supporters of the digital media industry inQuebecand excited by the depth of talent and number of quality investment opportunities available in the Province.”
“Inovia Capital is a private venture capital funds managers driven by backing the best entrepreneurs in the hottest space with the upmost potential. We strongly believe that Gamerizon will become one of the largest game developers on social and mobile platforms in Canada and we are glad to help its management team execute on such ambitions,” explained Chris Arsenault, Managing Partner, Inovia Capital.
“Today’s announcement is another example that Montreal is a global leader in the gaming industry and will remain for a very long time. Gamerizon established itself as one of the leaders in the extremely competitive mobile games industry and we should be proud of its success,” affirmed Mr. Michel Leblanc, President and CEO of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal.
Gamerizon’s Chop Chop™ games have been downloaded over 15 million times in the span of 16 months and have consistently reached top 5 downloaded applications ranking positions in most countries in the world on the iPhone and iPad platforms. Gamerizon was recently ranked as the world’s 32nd best mobile developer by PockertGamer.biz.¹
1 http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/PG.Biz+Top+50+Developers/feature.asp?c=27834&srch=top+50
Gamerizon : Talented Programmers Needed
Gamerizon is currently seeking for talented programmers to join its development teams. If you are a social or mobile gaming guru and are passionate about the video game industry, send us your resume! Potential candidates can visit the “Career” section on Gamerizon’s website at http://gamerizon.com/career/ or send their resume at hr@gamerizon.com.
About Gamerizon
Launched in early 2008, Gamerizon is a Montreal-based independent studio specialized in the development of high quality mobile and casual games for numerous social and mobile platforms including Facebook, iOS, Android and Windows Mobile. Six of our Chop Chop mobile games have been downloaded over 1 million times each and most have reached top ranking positions in their respective categories in over 50 countries.
About Vanedge Capital
Vanedge Capital is a new venture capital fund focused on investments in digital media. We make investments where our unique combination of operating leadership and management; subject matter expertise; relationships with technology, creative, and management talent will generate out-sized returns.
About Inovia Capital
Inovia partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build successful companies in high growth sectors. The team is comprised of entrepreneurs and sector experts focused onMobile, Internet and Digital Media. Inovia has $165M under management across two seed and early stage funds. For more information, visit www.inoviacapital.com or follow Inovia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Inovia.
For more information, please contact:
Valérie Dupuis
Fleishman-Hillard Inc.
Office : 514–866–6776, ext. 312
Mobile: 514–892–8005
valerie.dupuis@fleishman.ca
