Madrid, Spain-based eRepublik, makers of what the startup refers to as a ‘massive online social strategy game’ (MOSS), has just raised €2 million – approx. $2.8 million – in Series A funding from AGF Private Equity. The company had previously raised up to €750,000 in seed funding from the VC firm and a host of angel investors, bringing the total invested to €2.75 million or a little over $3.8 million.
eRepublik, its first MOSS, is set in a browser-based mirrored version of the real world in which players (called citizens) can participate in politics, set economic policy, start businesses, engage in wars with other countries and interact socially with other players while they’re at it. The company pitches the virtual world to have an edge over other strategy games played online because it’s not nearly as time-consuming; 15 minutes per day they say should suffice.
According to the company, traffic numbers are going through the roof: the eRepublik website is said to have received over 3.7 million visits in May, with citizens from some 200 countries having spent over 55 million minutes and generating 95 million page views navigating the virtual world during that month. Pretty impressive for a small European company (eRepublik Labs only has 30 employees).
The fresh funding will be used to extend eRepublik in terms of new features: eRepublik co-founder and CEO Alexis Bonte says they’re only at about 25% of what the game should become in the near future. The company is also expanding the eRepublik platform into other languages – the company just launched a Spanish language version this month – and is busy preparing the launch of multiple new games.
Here’s a video of Bonte interviewing Guillaume Latour, a partner at AGF PE who will be joining the startup’s board: