Chinese Social Game Maker Happy Elements Raises $30M

Beijing-based social game developer Happy Elements secured $30 million in a Series B round of funding, which it will devote to expanding internationally and to the smartphone gaming market. This new investment round was led by Legend Capital and previous backer DCM, and brings the company's total funding up to $35 million. The company was founded in 2009 and mainly releases games to social networking services in Japan, China, and South Korea. As the company's titles like My Kingdom and My Fishbowl have taken off, Happy Elements has grown its headcount from eight to now 200. It intends to spend a portion of this new capital to recruit even more employees from across the globe to strengthen its presence in Asia. The firm also wants to aggressively extend its global operations and publishing efforts. Happy Elements prides itself in its Global Integration Platform, which can update products on a variety of international social networking platforms like Facebook, Tencent, Cyworld, Orkut, etc. Happy Elements has also set up a global operations team with members from 15 different countries, each dedicated to adapting games to fit different markets' needs. The group has worked with the Global Integration Platform to begin publishing third-party titles earlier this year. "At Happy Elements, we really know how users socialize and how games operate and spread," says Happy Elements CEO Haining Wang. "With this new investment, we will continue to recruit diverse talent from across the globe and we will continue to attract top-class producers and managers."