Overwolf, an Israel-based company that lets creators build, distribute, and monetize in-game apps and mods has raised $52.5 million in a Series C round.
The round was co-led by Griffin Gaming Partners and Insight Partners with participation from investors including Ubisoft, Warner Music Group, Meg Whitman, Gen.G Co-Founder, Kevin Chou, and existing investors Marker, Intel Capital, Liberty Technology Venture Capital, and Atreides Management.
The news of WMG’s participation in the funding round follows January’s news that the music company had invested in kids’ gaming phenomenon Roblox.
Overwolf, which has over 30,000 creators and 18m monthly active users has also launched CurseForge Core, described as a ‘User Generated Content (UGC) as a service’ platform.
The company acquired mod repository CurseForge from Twitch in 2020.
According to Overwolf, CurseForge Core “provides an SDK for game developers that integrates into the game itself and functions as a gateway for users to discover and install mods in-game, across all platforms and storefronts”.
Overwolf says that it has experienced 300% growth in the last year alongside the rise of the market for content around games.
The company states that the new funding will be used to “boost development firepower dedicated to creating services for creators”.
It will further be used to create more opportunities and vehicles to invest in, and with, the in-game creator community.
Based in Tel Aviv, the company has raised over $75m to date.
“Services like Overwolf set the stage for the industry to see a new generation of user-generated content and we are excited to invest in the leading company moving this space forward.”
Nick Tuosto, LionTree
Nick Tuosto, Co-Founder of Griffin Gaming Partners and Managing Director at LionTree, added: “Similar to how developers use Unity to build a game, we see Overwolf as the framework for everything UGC related to games.
“Overwolf allows for one of the only means of monetization for the thousands of creators, in turn, this translates to increased engagement for the publishers and more content for gamers.
“Services like Overwolf set the stage for the industry to see a new generation of user-generated content and we are excited to invest in the leading company moving this space forward.”
“We’ve been following UGC in gaming for many years and believe Overwolf has established itself as a leader in this category.”
Teddie Wardi, Insight Partners
Teddie Wardi, Managing Director at Insight Partners added: “We’ve been following UGC in gaming for many years and believe Overwolf has established itself as a leader in this category.
“AAA game studios will want to allow creators to build and express themselves, and Overwolf is positioned as the platform to make this possible by ensuring that creators are recognized for their contributions, and easily integrating creations into games.
“Overwolf has proved themselves to be strong champions of the creator community and we look forward to helping them scale up in 2021.”
“Overwolf is developing the holy grail of frameworks for UGC for both publishers and in-game creators.”
Oscar Navarro, Ubisoft
Oscar Navarro, Head of Corporate Development for Ubisoft, said: “Overwolf is developing the holy grail of frameworks for UGC for both publishers and in-game creators.
“Enabling all major publishers like us, to allow the creation of mods in a safe, secure, authorized, and profitable manner; is a game changer for all creators and IP holders.”Music Business Worldwide