In the long tail of social casual game publishers behind Zynga and Playfish, another is taking on investment to try carving out its own piece of the segment.
Majorca-based Playspace is taking on €1.5 million ($1.9 million), led by PeopleFund, the Florida VC house formed in 2006 by HealthCare.com founder Matias de Tezanos.
Playspace was co-founded just seven months ago by Enrique Dubois, who led Spanish social network, Tuenti, acquired by Telefonica.
True to form, its games like Ludo, Dominos and The Goose are free to play but require virtual currency payments for certain features.
The company claims over three million users (it does not state whether all are active) and is planning to take its games mobile. With the money, it will create new jobs at its Palma, Majorca, office.
Many European startups are playing in exactly the same area as larger behemoths. In this case, Zynga and Playfish could crush Playspace. But what the upstarts are attempting is to go under the giants’ radars by providing equivalent local-language entertainment to their compatriots.
That strategy could work, until such time as the incumbents simply localise their offering – or until the small-fry might become acquisition targets for the bigger fish.