North West Fund backs Playdemic

The funding will be used by Playdemic to continue the development of its newest game, set to be released early next year.

The investment amount has not been disclosed but is described as large. The North West Fund for Digital & Creative typically invests £50,000-2m. The vehicle is a sub-fund of the North West Fund, a £155m evergreen umbrella fund that provides debt and equity to SMEs in the north west of England via its six sub-funds.

Previous funding
In August last year, Playdemic raised $4m in funding from a group of investors, $3m of which was provided by the grandchildren of IBM founder Thomas Watson. Watson's grandson, David Watson, sits on Playdemic's board as a non-executive director.

Company
Founded in 2010, Playdemic is headquartered in Manchester and employs 65 staff. The company develops social games for Facebook and mobile. Playdemic's current offerings are Gourmet Ranch, a farming and cookery simulation game, and Village Life, the company's medieval village life simulation game that has attracted 16 million users since its launch in December last year.

The company has a partnership with social games provider Zynga, meaning that Playdemic's games are available to Zynga's extensive network of users through its website.

People
Paul Gouge is the founder and CEO of Playdemic. David Smith is an investment director at AXM.

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