Thursday, September 9, 2021

Jam City Raises $350M, Acquires Ludia For $165M

Los Angeles-based mobile games developer JamCity is continuing its growth, saying on Wednesday that it has raise $350M in new funding, and acquired mobile game studio Ludia. According to the company, it paid $165M to acquire Ludia from Fremantle. Ludia is behind the Jurassic World games, including Jurassic World: The Game and Jurassic World Alive. Jam City said the new, $350M funding round was a combination of equity and debt, and included Netmarble, Kabam, and affiliates of funds managed by Fortress Investment Group. The funding comes on top of an earlier $130M equity investment led by Netmarble in 2015, and another $145M in strategic financing Jam City raised in 2019, from a bank syndicate including Joint Lead Arrangers JPMorgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch with Silicon Valley Bank, Truist Securities and CIT Bank. Jam City said the new funding will help it continue its global expansion, and also help further its strategy to build out its portfolio of studios. The games publisher had previously acquired Rainbow Star studio in Burbank, TinyCo in San Francisco, Uken Games in Toronto, and 231Play in Berlin. The company is led by co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe.