Israeli gaming platform Overwolf today announced the completion of a $75 million Series D financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz with the participation of previous investors including Griffin Gaming Partners, Insight Partners, Intel Capital, Liberty Technology Venture Capital, and Marker. This brings to $150 million the total amount raised by the company.
The new investment will be used to further develop the in-game creator ecosystem through CurseForge Core, a "UGC as a Service" solution that enables game studios, IP owners and in-game creators to prosper by using an all-in-one platform that enables them to build, share, and monetize in-game apps and mods.
Overwolf supports both in-game creators and game studios in facilitating community-created experiences via CurseForge Core. CurseForge Core is a white-label solution built to accelerate the community-created content movement by enabling publishers to easily integrate mods safely and seamlessly into their existing and new games, at zero cost.
Beyond the technical solution, Overwolf also offers game developers a full-service user-generated content (UGC) experience by managing content moderation including toxicity management, the community of players and creators, IP, UGC-related live ops, compatibility testing, file hosting, and the processing of creator payments. Gamers receive access to an in-game marketplace where they can discover, download, and install approved player-created content without ever leaving the game.
Over 87,000 creators currently use the Overwolf framework to build, distribute and monetize their in-game apps and mods. More than 20 million gamers use Overwolf’s products monthly, and download more than 15 billion apps and mods yearly. In 2021, Overwolf expects to pay out $29 million to in-game creators, a threefold year-on-year increase.
Overwolf cofounder and CEO Uri Marchand said, "Community-created experiences are the future of gaming. No single game studio can compete with the speed of execution and sheer creativity of a passionate community. Instead of resisting community creations, we have seen a shift in perception with leading game studios starting to embrace the value that these creators bring to the community and to the studio itself. It is an honor to be able to provide the framework, tools and expertise to usher in this new era of community creation."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 17, 2021.
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