Community gaming app Palringo has opened its global headquarters in Shoreditch, London.

The firm, which has 28 million users on its mobile platform, has moved to London in a bid to significantly increase its focus on gaming in new markets.

Founded in Newcastle, but with offices in Ipswich, and Gothenburg, Sweden where its internal development studio Free Lunch is based, Palringo originally started out as a group messaging tool.

The move to London is a result of the company's new global strategy.

As part of the move, the company will also be publishing 12 games on iOS and Android, which the first title - a reworking of  Free Lunch's Dark Nebula: Episode One out now. 

New friends

According to Palringo CMO Magnus Alm, the move is the start of a new business-orientated era. 

“This is the first time that we will actively undertake a big marketing push. We’ve been in the lucky situation that in the past we have attracted a huge proportion of our current users organically and through word of mouth,” said Alm.

“While Gothenburg, Newcastle and Ipswich remain important locations for us, we felt that London, and Shoreditch in particular, was the best place in the world to establish our headquarters, accelerate our business and to manage the increasing scale of our marketing operations.

“We will be making significant announcements in Q1 next year and we are looking forward to joining and contributing to the vibrant network that is the London tech and gaming community.”

The app currently has more than 20.000 gaming groups including groups for Clash of Clans, Modern War, Minecraft and League of Legends, some of which have more than 1,000 users.