When you're successful in the hottest spot in the global industry, raising money is never an issue.

So it is that when describing the $11 million raised in Yodo1's latest funding round, CEO Henry Fong isn't fazed in the slightest.

"We actually raised the money in early October," he says.

"We've been sitting on the press release and getting on with doing the real work."

From China with love

Fong's point is that with Yodo1 operating in the fast-growing and even faster-moving Chinese mobile games market, there's no time for sitting back and counting the cash.

"We raised this money for a purpose," he explains of the deal, which will see Yodo1 taking its co-development and publishing model - including its own social community network - into the Korean and Japanese markets.

"We already have a team in Korea and we've been in deep discussions with Kakao about our first games," he says.

The world, an oyster

Still, it might seem slightly odd to be moving from China - the world's most significant emerging market - into two highly lucrative but already mature countries.

For Fong, the shift is strategic and long-term.

"If we were just looking for short-term growth, we would double-down on China, but we're looking two to three years out and to maintain our exponential growth," he comments.

Indeed, as well operating in China and Korea, with Japan to follow - an area Fong calls 'the golden triangle' for mobile games - Yodo1's other big shift in 2013 has been to set up a separate global co-development team.

It's already released Cavemania from US studio BonusXP and OMG TD! from Red Rocket Games, with Fong saying he was encouraged by the metrics Yodo1 has been seeing.

Find out more about what happens when East meets West at Pocket Gamer Connects - our first conference on 20-21 January in London.