Plain Vanilla, the developer of mobile trivia game QuizUp, has received $7.5m in financing from Glo Mobile, which joins backers including Tencent, IDG and Riot Games.
Mobile game company Glu Mobile has invested $7.5m in Plain Vanilla, the Iceland-based developer behind the game QuizUp, in the form of promissory notes convertible.
Launched in November 2013, QuizUp is a trivia game with more than 40 million registered users that has been played more than five billion times.
Glu, a Nasdaq-listed developer and publisher of free-to-play games for smartphone and tablet devices, plans to work with Plain Vanilla on a QuizUp television programme. It has the rights to buy the company later through a call option lasting 15 months.
Plain Vanilla previously raised $22m in a series B round including internet company Tencent, venture firm Sequoia Capital and IDG Ventures, a corporate venturing affiliate of media and data firm International Data Group, in December 2013. taking its overall funding to $27m. It boosted the round to $26.9m in June 2015.
IDG Ventures India, Tencent, gaming company Riot Games, Greycroft Partners, BoldStart Ventures, Crunchfund and Mesa Global had supplied $2.4m for the company in April 2013.
Niccolo de Masi, CEO pf Glu, which was also backed by China-based Tencent pre-flotation, said: “I look forward to joining QuizUp’s board of directors and sharing Glu’s deep expertise in advertising, in-app purchase optimisation, analytics and user acquisition.
“If our partnership proves out and QuizUp revenues scale, Glu will evaluate whether to exercise its call option to acquire the business.”
