With an eye on international expansion, Chinese social studio Happy Elements has closed a $30 million strong funding round.

The company, which was founded in Beijing in 2009, had previously raised $5 million in funding courtesy of DCM.

Put together with the most recent round – led by Legend Capital – a portion of the money is set to be used to aid an assault on the smartphone market.

Happy days

"In the last two years, social games have given players a fresh gaming experience and a new way to interact," said Happy Elements CEO Haining Wang.

"With this new investment, we will continue to recruit diverse talent from across the globe and we will continue to attract top-class producers and managers.”

Indeed, Happy Elements' head count has already grown from a base of eight to 300 at the most recent count.

As stated, part of the funds will go on expanding this base still further, with the company looking to strengthen its position in Asia.

Format focus

But also top of the agenda is a drive to take its library to new formats.

In total, the studio has already released games on 15 different platforms around the globe, having launched games on GREE's mobile network in Japan and Happy Fish Dream Aquarium on iPhone in October.

No specific details on future smartphone releases have been given, but the company claims they're a priority.

A 15-strong global localisation team is also currently working to bringing some of the studio's top titles – including My Kingdom and the 1.5 million subscriber boasting My Fishbowl - to global social networks like Facebook, Tencent, Cyworld and Orkut.

Wang concluded, "As we move forward, we will continue to focus on providing innovative games with the most compelling gaming experience."

[source: PR Newswire]