Playnery grabs $2.8m Series B funding

Korean mobile developer Playnery has completed a $2.8 million round of Series B financing that brings the studio’s total lifetime investment to $6 million.

Formed in 2011 by 8 year Phantagram veteran and nFlavor founder Henry Park, Playnery now has offices both in South Korea and the US.

The company recently partnered with one of "Asia’s biggest gaming companies" to publish its first title Mother of Myth – built with an in-house engine – on mobile platforms in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China.

A year ago Playnery entered in to a deal with Zynga, but a company spokesperson has told Develop that arrangement is no longer in place.

The funding round was led by JAFCO Asia, one of Japan’s largest venture capital firms. A previous $3.8 million round of Series A funding came from Softbank Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and Stonebridge Capital.

"We feel very fortunate to have a great group of investors and a publishing partner who believe in our vision and our ability to bring an advanced core gaming experience across many platforms," said CEO Henry Park.

"The latest financing will be used to accelerate our game development and to publish our first title Mother of Myth in 2014."

JAFCO pointed to Playnery’s strong team and in-house game engine as some of the chief reasons for its investment.

"Playnery has a strong team of industry veterans who had previously worked on PC online games and successfully serviced them in the global market," said JAFCO Investment associate director Kenny Nam.

"We were impressed with their in-house game engine technology which we believe that it will soon take the quality of mobile games to the next level."