Scopely raises $35 million to expand its mobile game platform

Scopely, a Los Angeles startup that’s built a platform for distributing and monetizing mobile games, is announcing that it has raised $35 million in Series A funding. Co-founder and CEO Walter Driver alternately described his goal as creating “the HBO of mobile games” and “the HBO of touchscreen entertainment.” The company develops its own games and also publishes games developed by others. The key, Driver said, is that many of the studios creating the best games don’t have the right tools to promote and make money from their titles.

Scopely, a mobile game publishing startup, has raised $35 million in financing to produce new titles and invest further in building out the technology behind its games distribution network, the company said on Thursday. The Culver City, California-based startup, which was founded in 2011, has delivered a handful of games such as “Mini Golf MatchUp,” which ranked among the top 5 games on Apple Inc’s app charts. Scopely makes its own games and also funds and publishes games made by other game studios. The funding round was led by a joint venture comprising the investment firm TPG Growth that has also invested in ride-sharing company Uber, investment bank Evolution Media Capital and entertainment company Participant Media. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc, known for its popular “Grand Theft Auto” game, also participated. “The new infusion will accelerate what we’re already doing and enable us to increase the velocity of development that we’re doing with a number of different studios,” Chief Executive Walter Driver said in an interview. “We’ll be able to compete with the larger companies in the interactive entertainment space that have significantly more capital than we have.”