Mobile MMO Maker Grey Area Attracts $2.5 Million In Venture Funding

Helsinki, Finland-based Grey Area, makers of mobile, location-based MMO Shadow Cities, have received $2.5 million in venture capital funding from a trio of firms including Index Ventures, London Venture Partners and Initial Capital. Started in 2008, Grey Area's first product, Shadow Cities uses the iPhone's GPS to let players engage in magical battles with each other for control of real world locations. "The iPhone has already emerged as an immensely popular gaming platform," said Grey Area CEO Ville Vesterinen. "However, we feel there is an entirely new category of games that can be built for today's smartphones. Our goal with Shadow Cities was to make the creative and technical leaps needed to make this a reality." The game was launched last November in a Finland-only public beta that quickly became the top-grossing and top-downloaded free app in the country's App Store. A global rollout is expected soon. "Mobile gaming is one of the most exciting and active sectors in consumer technology today," said Index Ventures' Ben Holmes in a statement. "Of all the startups we met, we thought Grey Area had the biggest vision and the most gifted and passionate team to execute on that vision." Grey Area funder London Venture Partners was founded last year by game industry veterans including former Atari CEO David Gardner and departing Sony Computer Entertainment president Phil Harrison. Last week, the firm announced its first funded project, the browser-based RPG Gunshine.net from Finnish developers Supercell.