Social gaming plus Russia equals hot. The latest activity in that space, after Drimmi and Alawar Entertainment scored funding – I-Jet Media, the country’s top social games publisher, is now raising $20 million.
The five-year-old firm has 60 million registered users, 10 million daily players and expects $15 million in 2010 revenue, Vedmosti and Quintura say.
Update: The money has not yet been signed on. I-Jet tells paidContent:UK: “i-Jet Media is going to call an ivestment round on the assumption that the company is estimated at $100 million by unaffiliated investors, in October or November 2010.”
I-Jet game Happy Farm, syndicated through the Vkontakte.ru social network, generated $20 million last year ($10 million for Vkontakte, another $10 million split between -Jet and its Chinese developer), Quintura says: “The company, which calls itself a ‘social games distribution network’, has published 70 social games in 30 different social networks in various countries. i-Jet Media recently agreed with Disney-owned Playdom to publish its games in Russian and European social networks.
Three quarters of I-Jet’s new funding will be designed to acquire other companies in the space in different countries, in a sign of social gaming consolidation – the rest to buy out its co-founders.