Mobcrush, a two-year-old startup that enables live-streaming video of mobile games, has closed a $20 million Series B round led by Evolution Media Capital, the investment venture of CAA, TPG Growth and Participant Media.
Also participating in the round were Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, which led Mobcrush’s Series A financing in September 2015, along with existing investors including Raine Ventures, Lowercase Capital and First Round Capital. The new funding brings the total raised by Mobcrush to $35.9 million to date.
Mobcrush — similar to Twitch and YouTube’s game-streaming features, but focused entirely on mobile games — says it has about 1 million active users. Popular games on the service include “Minecraft,” “Vainglory,” “Clash Royale” and “Pokemon Go.” According to the company, “Critical Ops,” a recently released mobile first-person shooter, had more than 5,000 broadcasts and more than 2 million minutes watched on Mobcrush prior to the game’s release.
“Mobile phones and tablets are increasingly becoming consumers’ primary source of entertainment,” said Salim Mitha, partner at Evolution Media Capital. “By focusing on seamless entertainment delivery from mobile devices, Mobcrush has anticipated this trend and is poised to change the way gamers consume and share content.”
Mobcrush touts its app as allowing gamers to live-stream with a single tap on their iOS or Android devices. Users can watch mobile gameplay live or on-demand and chat with other players; about 5% of the app’s users are broadcasters on the platform.
Founded in 2014, Santa Monica-based Mobcrush has about 30 employees. Founder and CEO Royce Disini previously worked at M-Go, the digital-movie retail joint venture of Technicolor and DreamWorks Animation now owned by Fandango, as well as MySpace and Yahoo.
