With a focus on "determining why and how audiences play", analytics specialist Playnomics has bolstered its business with a $5 million strong series B funding round.

The money – served up by Vanedge Capital as well as existing investors FirstMark Capital and XSeed Capital – will be used both to expand the firm's handle on gamification mechanics, as well as expand PlayRM, the company's customer relationship management platform for games.

Funding fuel

PlayRM already handles more than 100 million unique players across what Playnomics claims are "dozens of leading online games and brands worldwide."

The company covers both web-based and mobile games, amassing data from more than 30 million monthly active players and 5 billion in-game events.

"With this new round of funding, we’ll be able to further expand the features and capabilities of the platform to meet the growing needs of our partners worldwide," said CEO Chethan Ramachandran.

"Developers can expect several new product releases this year that leverage our predictive scoring and segmentation engine."

Joining the board

As part of the deal, Tony Lam - principle at investor Vanedge Capital – is set to join the company's board.

"As veterans in interactive entertainment and video game technology, we recognize that access to big data science, improved analytics and advanced marketing software is an absolute requirement for successful games," added Lam.

"Playnomics has already made significant moves in this space, creating real value for their partners, and our fund was created to support companies like Playnomics as they move forward building out their vision."