Paris-based studio Oh BiBi announced today that it has raised $21 Million as the company seeks to accelerate the rollout of its mobile-first portfolio of games.
The company was founded in 2012 by Stanislas Dewavrin and Martial Valery, who had both previously worked on Gameloft’s hits Minion Rush and Asphalt. Oh Bibi’s most popular game is arcade racing title SUP, whiuch has had 30 million downloads. The company is getting ready to launch its first shooter title, FRAG, for iOS and Android next month.
The latest round of funding was led by Atomico, with participation from Korelya Capital. The investment puts Oh BiBi in good company, as Atomico has also backed Supercell, Rovio, Teatime and Bossa Studios.
“At Oh BiBi we are on a mission to make mobile free-to-play fun to play by focusing on bringing epic multiplayer action games to mobile,” said Oh BiBi co-founder Dewavrin, in a statement. “Our unique blend of creative approach and data driven infrastructure means we build extremely ambitious games with very small autonomous teams of no more than six. This means we need to hire the very best of the best in our industry who like working autonomously and this latest investment by Atomico will allow us to turbocharge that hiring and the launch of our first game in the shooter genre FRAG.”
Oh BiBi says FRAG will include a social platform to enhance game play including features such as chat and video sharing. The game will offer real-time multiplayer matches during short battles, where each player selects their team and weapons.
“When we started working on FRAG 6 months ago, we knew there was no reason why a shooter game could not dominate the top grossing rankings for mobile games,” said Oh BiBi co-founder and COO Valery in a statement. “Now Fortnite has demonstrated it was possible, we’re ready to challenge their claim for best mobile shooter and with Atomico onboard, as one of the most active VCs investing in the games sector today, we are well equipped to scale and looking forward to the challenge.”
This is Atomico’s first investment in a French startup in about nine years. In a statement, Atomico Partner Mattias Ljungman said the firm was won over by the Oh BiBi founders, including their history but also their future plans.
“When we published our games investment thesis we identified a huge trend in mobile games will be around PC and console game genres that historically haven’t made the successful transition to mobile,” Ljungman said in a statement. “We believe there is an opportunity there to create deeper, more engaging games on mobile, that keep players coming back for more and we believe that Oh BiBi is the best games company in the industry to tackle this challenge.”