Doodle Mobile, an Innovation Works’ (IW) incubatee and mobile based game company has closed a US$10 million series A round of funding, led by KPCB and in conjunction with Zero to IPO.
Doodle Mobile first moved into the IW next in October 2010. Founder, Wang Ye wanted to focus on the rapidly expanding global mobile social gaming market. Wang is also ex-head of Product Management at IW and ex-engineering program manager at Google.
Currently with a team of 30, the start-up has already launched 40 games in the sports and puzzle category including ‘Billiard Master’ and ‘Restaurant Live’. They have already accumulated 50 million users, where 40% come from the U.S., 30% from Europe and 10% from China.
Especially within China, many developers have struggled to earn money from selling apps. But Wang Ye believes that Android and iPhone will continue to create massively lucrative markets, so building a high user base now is priority over profit. Ye argues that the company can make lots of money through selling virtual goods.
The round of funding will be used to enhance the product and promote it.