Mobile Games Company Scopely Raises $340 Million

By Noah Long ● Oct 29, 2020
  • Leading mobile games company Scopely announced it has raised $340 million in Series E funding. These are the details.

Leading mobile games company Scopely announced it has raised $340 million in Series E funding from a strong group of investors with expertise in the interactive entertainment space, including Wellington Management, NewView Capital, TSG Consumer Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), funds managed by BlackRock, D1, Battery Ventures, Eldridge, Declaration Partners, and Moore Strategic Ventures. And additional investors in the round include Greycroft, Baillie Gifford, Sands Capital, Revolution Growth, and Highland Capital Partners. 

Scopely has built many top-grossing and award-winning franchise games including Scrabble GO, MARVEL Strike Force, Star Trek Fleet Command, Looney Tunes World of Mayhem, WWE Champions, The Walking Dead: Road To Survival, YAHTZEE With Buddies and Wheel of Fortune: Free Play. And with one of the most diversified and top-grossing portfolios in mobile games, Scopely will utilize the funds to accelerate its path to becoming the top mobile games company in the West. Plus the capital will continue to support Scopely’s highly effective M&A strategy as well as its expansion into new product categories.

The Series E round of funding comes on the heels of several years of explosive growth for the company, recently named a top-5 mobile game maker. And in September, Scopely deepened its partnership with ViacomCBS to bring the entire Star Trek film and TV universe to its popular title Star Trek Fleet Command, the first mobile game ever to do so. This game has one of the most engaged audiences of any title in the category with players spending an average of four hours playing each day. 

MARVEL Strike Force also saw dramatic growth since joining Scopely’s ecosystem following the company’s acquisition of FoxNext Games LA from Disney earlier this year, increasing regularity and engagement. And Scopely’s newest title Scrabble GO launched worldwide in March as the #1 most-downloaded word game in the world, earning it the distinction of biggest mobile word game launch ever. One of Scopely’s longest-running franchises YAHTZEE With Buddies is on track to see a record-breaking year five years post-launch.

Now Scopely has approximately 950 employees across offices and studios in the United States, Spain, Ireland, the UK, and Japan.

KEY QUOTES:

“The companies that have built the deepest relationships with their customers are the ones that are going to win. We’re proud to have built Scopely to be a significantly profitable business with a strong balance sheet driven by the success of each game in our diverse portfolio. With this new capital from strategic investors who deeply understand the potential of our business within the fast-growing interactive entertainment space, we’re armed to make transformative moves that will further accelerate our growth trajectory and drive the industry forward.”

— Scopely Co-CEO Walter Driver

“We are at the cutting edge of an industry that continues to grow and evolve at an exciting pace. Our technology platform, market-leading studio ecosystem, and world-class team have empowered us to build one of the most diversified portfolios in mobile games today and develop deeply rewarding, multiyear relationships with our players. We intend to use our significant resources and this new inflow of capital to partner with like-minded teams and creators who want to shape the future of ‘play’ and, together, continue to build a unique company in the gaming space.”

— Scopely Co-CEO Javier Ferreira

“While many in the industry focus on one hit game or one specific genre, we’ve witnessed how Scopely has broken the mold by replicating success time and time again across genres. Scopely has proven itself as an acquirer of choice for the world’s most talented game studios — quickly demonstrating its ability to add massive value through its tech platform and powerful publishing infrastructure. Across the board, Scopely’s game-making capabilities have enabled the company to build a business with industry-leading metrics, scaling quickly on both the top and bottom line. They are one of the best investments in the gaming sector, and this financing provides them with more ammunition to maintain their momentum.”

— Ravi Viswanathan, Managing Partner of NewView Capital

“We believe mobile gaming’s rapid growth makes it one of the most attractive categories in entertainment from an investment standpoint, and we are excited to partner with Scopely as a premier company in the space. We are confident that Scopely’s vision for the future coupled with its strategic approach to creating a vertically integrated game-making ecosystem, differentiated technology platform, and deep relationships with players will continue to cement its status as an industry leader.”

— Daniel Sundheim, Founder and Chief Investment Officer at D1 Capital Partners