Playgama raises $3 million to build global HTML5 platform ecosystem

Game tech platform Playgama recently raised $3 million in funding, which it will put toward a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) ecosystem for games made in HTML5.

With funding primarily from firms The Open Platform and s16vc, the company is hoping to get in HTML5's "renaissance" in games. In the announcement on December 3, it outlined its plans for its PaaS ecosystem, which will include a unified SDK to allow for publishing across multiple platforms, a QA tool that consolidates those platforms' requirements into a single list, and tools for monetization, marketing, and payments.

Playgama noted how HTML5's game market is made up of "thousands of standalone playgrounds" compared to the more centralized storefronts for Epic Games on PC and iOS or Google Play on mobile. That "fragmented" market means "leaders capture only small fractions of the global web gaming audience. [...] There’s currently no way for developers to access the entire market at once, and [we] aim to change this."

"Our vision is to streamline distribution through a 'master key' approach, providing developers with a simple and efficient route to tap into all available platforms, languages, and markets, maximizing their chances of reaching a large and diverse audience," explained Playgama. Its PaaS ecosystem will run on its open-source Bridge SDK, which it says simplifies game integration simultaneously across multiple platforms and is already compatible with Unity, Godot, and other engines.

"We want to transform the web gaming market and empower HTML5 game creators to effortlessly reach audiences they once could only dream of," said CEO Dmitry Kachmar. "With this funding, we’ll accelerate further improvement of Playgama’s platform for developers, expand our toolkit, and introduce advanced analytics and fintech solutions."