Itzik Frid is a happy man.

The CEO of Israeli start up MoMinis has announced it's raised $4.5 million from existing investors BRM Group and Mitsui Ventures.

This brings the 25-strong company's total funding to-date to $9.2 million.

"We went with existing investors because it was faster," Frid explains, of the second round.

As for the reason MoMinis needs the cash quickly, that's to strike while the iron is hot.

Petrol on the fire

"We're operating in the most brutal market, but in three months, we've had 16 million downloads of our Android games," Frid explains.

In a world dominated by the likes of Zynga, GREE and DeNA, MoMinis' own take on the free-to-play social gaming platform may be more modest, but it's finding an audience and fast.

"Our shareholders definitely want us to be like GREE and DeNA," he jokes of the Japanese companies, which have combined annual sales in the $3 billion range.

"They are role models for us, but in some ways we're in a stronger position. We haven't spent any money on getting content or user acquisition."

Groundswell

The reason is MoMinis' bottom-up approach to its business.

It started out with its simple game-making tools for Java. In the early days, these were mainly used by prosumers and small start ups, but now Frid says there are over 30 what he calls Tier 1 professional developers using its platform.

"We have companies such as Game Duell and Abolutist, as well as several PC developers who are moving into mobile," he reveals.

The platform, which is accessed by consumers via the PlayScape - Mega Game app already supports 50 Android games, including Ninja Chicken, which has been download over 5 million times itself.

Frid says as the company has matured, it's become more selective about the games it will distribute. "We maybe accept one in 100 now," he says.

The reason MoMinis has gained its traction is because of the audience it can now offer and its commercial terms.

"We don't require platform exclusively. We don't take IP rights. We provide developers with good distribution, which is what they need the most," Frid states.

Cut of the cash

As for the business side of the operation, that's fuelled partly by in-game currency.

Once a player downloads PlayScape - Mega Game, they're led through a tutorial in a simple Doodle Jump-style game. The tutorial isn't really about the game, however, it's about how you earn experience points and gold coins by completing missions.

You use the coins to buy virtual goods such as power ups, and then MoMinis offers you more if you'll download some of the games it's distributing via the featured list inside the PlayScape app.

And because the currency is common to all games, it's more likely consumers will spend real money.

The other key revenue stream is in-game advertising.

"We're generating 30 million impressions per day and the US is our biggest market by far. It's lucrative inventory," Frid enthuses.

Developers get the standard 70 percent cut of revenue generated from their games.

Big, bigger

So with strong foundations in place, and the cash to build quickly, it's all-go for MoMinis.

Key areas include enhancing its tools and platform, notably to ensure that when someone downloads one of its games, they're more efficiently incentivised and circulated within the network.

Usage is already high. MoMinis says users spend an average of 25- 30 minutes a day playing its games, compared to an industry average of 8 minutes.

During the coming months, it will also launch on iOS, roll out a marketing campaign, and open a US office.

"We're already in a strong position," says Frid. "But our plan is to create a huge network."

Developers can find out more about MoMinis here, and the PlayScape - Mega Game app here [Google Play link].