Icelandic studio Teatime Games has raised over $9 million in seed funding to develop real-time social games.
Investment outfit Index Ventures, which has previously backed other games companies including Supercell and King, led the funding round.
As reported by Venturebeat, Teatime was co-founded by Thor Fridriksson, Ymir Finnbogason, Johann Bergthorsson, and Gunnar Holmsteinn.
If those names sound familiar, it’s because they’re the folks behind Plain Vanilla Games, the Reykjavik-based studio responsible for building popular trivia title QuizUp.
After finding success with QuizUp, which boasted over 100 million players in its prime, the group established Teatime with the aim of “reinventing” social games.
They’ll start by using their newfound cash to bolster the studio’s 13-person team, and will focus on projects centered around personalization and real-time interactions between players.
“Games have always been an inherently social and multiplayer experience. But the overwhelming majority of mobile games, however, are single player, while most multiplayer mobile games are turn-based and are played against invisible opponents,” commented Fridriksson.
“We are building Teatime Games on the premise that mobile games players crave a more social and personalized experience than they are currently getting, where communicating with friends and fellow players in real time not only enhances a game, but is as important as the game itself. That’s why we’re developing the first real time communication gaming platform for mobile.”