A Birmingham company which has devised an innovative game based around music festivals has secured 拢285,000 through crowd-funding
Soshi Games, based on the Innovation Birmingham campus at Birmingham Science Park Aston, has secured 拢285,000 via the SyndicateRoom equity crowd-funding platform, taking the total investment in the business to 拢1.4 million since it was set up in 2010.
The crowd investment complements Soshi鈥檚 existing investors - Midven and private investors.
Soshi Games is the creator of Music Festivals Game, which enables players to build and manage their own music festival and is the only game of its kind which integrates 鈥榬eal鈥 music.
More than 800,000 players have installed the game on Facebook so far, with the number of players continuing to grow daily.
In addition to occupying the interest of gamers the game helps artists to get discovered and provides new revenue streams for music rights holders - providing artist management, labels, merchandisers and media partners with a vehicle to monetise their social media fan bases.
Soshi also has games designed specifically for the mobile and tablet market, such as a quiz based game, entitled 鈥楥lue The Music鈥.
Cliff Dennett, CEO of Soshi Games said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e gamifying the music industry. I envisage a world where the whole idea of an album cover, a CD insert, and the static imagery you still see online being used to promote albums today, being transformed to a much more interactive, engaging experience.
鈥淎lbums will evolve with their player bases over time, with new micro games launched that provide an interactive medium for gamers who love their music to uncover a more enhanced experience.
鈥淭here is such a close connection between games, hand-held devices and music consumption and we鈥檝e brought together the best of these to create the Soshi Games business model.
鈥淥ur games enable popular acts to engage with their fan bases and earn money at the same time, but our aim is actually to launch a brand new artist globally through one of our games.鈥
Florence Wilkinson, commercial director at SyndicateRoom said: 鈥淪oshi Games definitely had the X Factor for our crowd, and we鈥檙e delighted to be part of the Soshi story.
"With the music industry seeing growth in live performances, digital streaming and merchandise, partnering this with the burgeoning mobile gaming industry is surely a match made in heaven."
Dr David Hardman, CEO of Innovation Birmingham, said: 鈥淭his is the first significant crowd-fund investment secured by a tech start-up based at the Innovation Birmingham Campus, however, I hope this will prove a route to funding for many more over the course of this year.
鈥淔or Soshi to have secured 拢1.4million of investment is a testament to the strength of their concept.
鈥淚t is also very rewarding that the company has rapidly grown from a start-up in our Entrepreneurs for the Future Centre to a team of 11 people and this latest investment will enable further expansion.鈥
Soshi was recently featured in the Develop 100 list of the top 100 games studios in the 海角视频.
