Germany’s Flaregames, a mobile game startup headed by Gameforge founder Klaas Kersting, has raised $2.63 million (2 million euros) from Deutsche Telekom’s investment arm.
T-Venture Investment will take a stake in Karlsruhe, Germany-based Flaregames, which is making free-to-play games for a variety of mobile platforms. The deal comes on the heels of a $7.9 million investment from Accel Partners. It shows that Kersting has an ability to cut deals and that mobile gaming is still hot.
Flaregames and Deutsche Telekom have also signed a broad marketing cooperation agreement where they will work together to promote and market mobile games. The first games will be released in April in five languages, and eight games are currently planned for release this year.
“We had just closed a round of financing and are actually comfortably financed, but were open to T-Venture’s approach, as we consider it a unique strategic opportunity,” said Klaas Kersting, CEO and founder of Flaregames. “T-Venture’s position as a catalyst between ourselves and Deutsche Telekom opens up numerous opportunities for successful collaboration and access to the customer base of the leading European carrier.”
Christian Illek, marketing director of Telekom Deutschland, said that Flaregames impressed his company with a clear vision for growth, great product pipeline, and a motivated team. Kersting previously built Gameforge into a big online game company with 500 employees and more than $260 million in annual revenue.