PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#gamedev–Fungies.io announces the closure of its PreSeed round, with investments from groundbreaking firms including Depo Ventures, Czechfounders.VC, Necto Labs, CV VC, Outlier Ventures, Tatum, and StartupYard.
As Shopify is to e-commerce, Fungies.io will be to gaming. Given more than 3.22 billion people worldwide play games, the video games market worldwide, with a growth rate of 7.89% between 2023 and 2027, will reach a market volume of $521.6 billion in 2027. The indie gaming industry in particular is undergoing an overwhelming surge with more than 1,200 games released daily—from over 50,000 game developers and publishers. Small game studios, lacking dedicated marketing departments and comprising fewer than 10 employees, often resort to self-publishing on platforms such as Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG.com.
Fungies.io was founded to fix that. It’s a no-code SaaS platform to allow indie gaming studios to set up their own customizable Web Storefront in minutes. The company will create self-publishing commerce tools that allow game developers to effortlessly establish their own Web Shops, enabling direct game sales to players without intermediaries like Steam.
Fungies.io is not positioned as a direct competitor to Steam, but rather as an alternative and additional game distribution channel offering unique benefits. The no-code SaaS platform streamlines the process of setting up Web Shops for studios and publishers, saving them valuable time equivalent to days or even weeks. By empowering studios to take control of their distribution and publishing channels, Fungies.io allows them to enhance sales while effectively reducing costs.
One of Fungies.io’s primary intentions is to disrupt the burgeoning gaming commerce industry encompassing digital game distribution, in-game transactions, and private game server monetization.
Fungies.io will disrupt in many ways, primarily:
Giving studios an ability to bypass the hefty commissions (often up to 30%) charged by industry incumbents when selling directly through such Web Shops. Players can conveniently purchase game keys during the checkout process, allowing studios to maximize their profits by retaining more revenue.
Fungies.io offers an extensive range of customization options, including color schemes, fonts, layouts, and more. By continuously expanding its templates library, Fungies.io facilitates game studios to build their Web Storefronts within minutes, eliminating the weeks typically spent on acquiring hosting services, integrating plugins, and managing payments.
The platform seamlessly integrates with Stripe, providing players with a diverse range of payment methods, including credit cards and over 250 alternative options for purchasing games or in-game items.
Moreover, Fungies.io empowers studios to manage their own communities and access critical customer data, such as email addresses and purchasing behavior. This functionality allows studios with multiple games to consolidate their offerings in one place and effectively upsell new games to their existing player base.
The startup plans integrate with a multitude of third-party apps, including Mailchimp, Zapier, Intercom, and numerous marketing tools, thus delivering the ability for studios to more broadly and efficiently market their games directly to players.
Looking ahead, Fungies.io aims to extend its services to support mobile game studios in selling in-game items, assets, and currencies through their Web Shops. Notably, some publishers earning over $100 million annually from mobile microtransactions are already experiencing a 10%-20% share of sales through Web Shops, underscoring the immense potential of this market.
“We firmly believe that gaming commerce will continue to soar in value in the coming years, given that players already spend hundreds of billions of dollars annually on in-game items and assets, both Web2 and Web3. Our mission is to equip game studios with the essential tools to self-publish directly to their players,” stated Duke Vu, CEO of Fungies.io.
While the Fungies.io team is based in Poland, the company is incorporated in the US with an office in Palo Alto, California. Fungies.io will bolster its product team and launch the first version of its platform by the end of September 2023. Over the next 12 months, Fungies.io aims to onboard 2,000 game developers and publishers via its self-service SaaS platform for gaming commerce, providing them with the ability to effortlessly establish customizable Web Shops within minutes.
About Fungies.io:
Fungies.io is a groundbreaking gaming commerce platform empowering game studios to establish their own Web Shops, enabling direct game sales to players without intermediaries. With a focus on customization, seamless integrations, and eliminating excessive commissions, Fungies.io is revolutionizing the self-publishing experience for game developers and publishers worldwide. Visit www.fungies.io for more information.
Contacts
For media inquiries, please contact:
Duke Vu
Fungies Inc., 2100 Geng Road, Suite 210, Palo Alto, California, 94303, EIN: 92-0927516
+1 6282572124
contact@fungies.io
