The acquisition of Tappy is for an undisclosed seven-figure sum comprising stock and cash, and will see its founders join Weeby.co
Silicon Valley-based cloud gaming platform Weeby.co has acquired Vietnam-based social networking app Tappy as it turns its focus to Asia.
The acquisition details have not been disclosed, aside from that it is a seven-figure sum comprising stock and cash.
Weeby.co, based in Silicon Valley, used to go by the name Game Closure. It has so far raised US$14 million from Highland Capital, Matt Ocko, Joi Ito, and others. The team started out of the PhD programme at Stanford University and completed the StartX accelerator programme. The company is best known for the Weeby.Co “Producer,” technology that automatically creates mobile games based on existing brands and IP. What’s neat about “Producer” is it reduces game building costs by over 90 per cent as it automates most of the engineering requirements.
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The Tappy founders joining the Weeby.co team include Thuy Truong, CEO and her technical Co-founders Leslie Ngan Nguyen and Thuc Vu. Troung previously founded GreenGar, the first Vietnam-based company accepted to 500 Startups. An official statement shared: “Nguyen built Groupon, Box, and Cisco’s VoIP app for in Asia. Vu previously co-founded Katango, which was acquired by Google in 2011.”
“The team at Tappy are veteran operators in the Southeast Asia region. By acquiring Tappy and bringing on board the management team, we’re jumping forward half a decade in business and strategic partnerships,” said Weeby.co’s CEO Michael Carter.
“The region is one of the fastest growing on the planet. Developers there have an increasing global reach, such as Flappy Bird, the hit arcade game out of Vietnam and Doki Stars, a multi-national top-5 arcade game out of Singapore. With this acquisition, we hope to tap into that incredible talent base to launch hits in the region and help developers break out to the rest of the world.”
Thuy Truong, CEO, Tappy at e27’s Echelon Malaysia 2014
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On the exit, Truong said, “I spent years creating at least 40 games and apps. The mobile gaming business is basically a hit-and-miss; it’s ridiculously hard for any small game studio to compete with big companies for top chart positions on the App Store. Weeby.co’s Producer is exactly what smaller studios need — it’s a game changer of the industry. I’m very excited to be a part of bringing this product to the hands of developers and studios around Asia and globally.”
Tappy has so far raised US$200,000 from 500 Startups and notable Vietnamese angel investors, including Doan Quoc Huy (Board of Director, BIM Group), Thuc Vu, Darwin Ling, along with other strategic partners.
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