Tencent has made yet another significant investment, this time in game studio Pocket Gems. With this, the firm is building up on its previous investments in Pocket. The investment firm had earlier put in $60 million in the studio for a 20 percent stake.
In its new round of investment, Tencent has put in around $90 million into the company. This boosts Tencent’s stakes in the firm to 38 percent. It also pinpoints towards a significant rise in the company’s valuation since then. Indeed, the company now has a valuation of well over $600 million — that too, with merely two popular titles including Episode and War Dragons.
Tencent has its investments everywhere. Even in gaming, the firm has stakes in Supercell (Yes, the entity behind Clash of Clans), Riot Games, CJ Games, Glu mobiles and others.
Even with just two titles, Pocket is doing pretty well. For instance, it claims to have had over 300 million downloads and as per Sensor Tower, the company generated somewhere in excess of $17.5 million in revenue in merely April! How is that for building and focusing on your product eh? Indeed, with a balance sheet like that, it is no surprise that Tencent wanted to make yet further investments.
Interestingly, the titles aren’t available in Chinese yet. In various markets, like Japan for instance, they are doing a roaring trade. And considering the sheer size of the Chinese marker, it wouldn’t be surprising if the company’s earnings from there manage to surpass what it has been generating from other markets.
Pocket is planning to use the newly raised funds to scale up further. This will involve hiring at least new employees to augment the 220 already working within its offices and developing a new studio that will focus on creating new multi-player games. The company also wants to enhance the experience for its pre-existing titles.
