Scopely, a mobile-games developer, announced an additional $200 million as part of its Series D funding round from Advance, whose holdings include Condé Nast, and Peter Chernin’s The Chernin Group (TCG).
The new funding doubles the size of the original $200 million Series D round Scopely announced last fall and brings the company to over $650 million raised to date. The upsized round brings Scopely’s Series D post-money valuation to $1.9 billion.
Scopely announced the additional financing, which was completed earlier in 2020, saying that the round was disclosed via the FTC following regulatory approval this week. “While under normal circumstances we would celebrate this milestone broadly, our thoughts are focused on the well-being of our employees, their families, our players and all of our communities,” Scopely co-CEOs Walter Driver and Javier Ferreira said in a statement.
Scopely said it plans to use the new funding for additional acquisitions and investments. In January, it acquired FoxNext Games, whose titles include “Marvel Strike Force,” from Disney, which had picked up the studio through the purchase of 20th Century Fox. Scopely plans to sell FoxNext Games’ Cold Iron Studios, which is developing PC and console games, as it diverges from Scopely’s mobile focus.
“The FoxNext Games acquisition reinforced our commitment to M&A, and the opportunity to partner with Advance and TCG was a welcome addition to further support our strategy,” Ferreira said in a prepared statement.
Culver City, Calif.-based Scopely says it has generated more than $1 billion in lifetime revenue. The company’s top-grossing games include “Star Trek Fleet Command” (created by Dublin-based DIGIT Game Studios, which Scopely bought last year), “Looney Tunes World of Mayhem,” “WWE Champions 2019,” “The Walking Dead: Road To Survival,” “Yahtzee With Buddies” and “Wheel of Fortune: Free Play.”
TCG previously participated in Scopely’s seed and Series A rounds. The company last fall closed an inaugural fund to invest in consumer and digital media businesses with over $700 million of commitments from investors.
“The Scopely team has outperformed expectations consistently for the nine years we have been an investor,” Jesse Jacobs, co-founder and partner at TCG, said in a statement. “As the traditional media industry continues to go through unprecedented change, we believe that Scopely has all the ingredients for tremendous success—exposure to games (the fastest-growing sector in media), a scalable and durable technology platform, a diversified set of well-known IP, an attractive economic profile, and a team hyper-focused on execution and long-term success.”
Janine Shelffo, Advance’s chief strategy and development officer, commented, “Advance has closely followed the growth and transformation of the gaming industry and identified Scopely as a rising force. We are deeply impressed with its industry-leading technology platform and analytics capability, which it has leveraged to create a diverse portfolio of consistently successful games.”
With the latest funding, an Advance executive will join Scopely’s board of directors and a TCG representative will join as a board observer.
Pictured above (l. to r.): Scopely chief revenue officer Tim O’Brien, chairman/co-CEO Walter Driver, co-CEO Javier Ferreira, CTO Ankur Bulsara