Given that Heyzap is an OpenFeint-style social mobile gaming discovery network, GREE's decision to shut down OpenFeint on 14 December was an early Christmas present.
"We'd just added leaderboards and achievements, so we got a big lift," says Jude Gomila, who co-founded the San Francisco-based outfit in 2009.
Another recent boost has been provided by the $4.3 million the company banked from its B Series round, with Union Square Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures taking Heyzap's total raised to $8 million.
It didn't formally announce the round, because "we just focused on the business," Gomila says.
Building up
In a sector where investment is often measured in the double-digits of millions, and growth is expected to be spectacular, Heyzap's progress to-date has been more steady.
Yet the 20-strong team has its social SDK integrated in thousands of games including titles from the likes of Pocket Gems, Animoca, Spacetime Studios and Get Set Games, while its social portal and discovery app has been downloaded over 10 million times on Android and iOS.
Its big push for 2013 is to improve its support for tablets, especially iPad, while keeping an eye on emerging platforms such as Windows Phone.
"I'd like to see a bigger install base before we commit to it," Gomila says.
Shooting stars
And like every good entrepreneur, he's happy to demonstrate the scope of his ambition.
"I think we can be an Instagram or Pinterest for games," Gomila confesses.
In that context, his view is other social gaming networks have gone wrong because they approached the problem from the wrong direction.
"Unlike OpenFeint, we have a consumer focus," he argues. "We need to get that right first. You build a platform for consumers, then you get the developers."
Heyzap currently has around 2 million daily active users; substantial but not yet spectacular
"I want to blow that 10-fold, 100-fold," Gomila says. "We're very bullish about 2013."
Interview
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
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