askblu.ai, the AI-SaaS solution to improve player retention in mobile games, starts its BETA stage with a new € 400 thousand funding, closed in June 2019 by AGORA, also an investor. Launched in 2017 by mobile game studio Happy Blue Fish, askblu.ai received a first round of € 450 thousand of seed funding in 2017 and 2018, to fund the first R&D efforts and the deploiement fo the first BETA version of the solution.
The worldwide mobile game market is increasing fast ($ 100 billion in 2021 which represents 60% of the worldwide videogame market).
In this market, players are very diverse and costly to acquire, and having a good player retention is key to game monetization. The askblu.ai platform is an efficient (AI-based), accessible (SaaS) and scalable (AWS) solution for all mobile game studios and publishers to simplify and optimize their game tuning, and break the retention ceiling with real-time player personalization.
The askblu.ai solution offers 2 main components :
- First (during soft-launch and updates), it simplifies and optimizes the difficulty tuning of each stage in a game, based on the overall player audience. Difficulty tuning is key to good retention, but it’s time consuming and tedious for mobile game studios, espacially in the Casual and Hyper-Casual segments (high growth segment, where French studio Voodoo raised $ 200 million last year).
- Second (while the game is live), it provides real-time difficulty personalization so that more players will stay longer in the games, breaking the retention ceiling.
Backed by new investors as well as existing ones, and by French Innovation Agency BPI France, askblu.ai is starting its “product-market fit” stage, allowing mobile game studios to register and test the platform for free.
The goal is to start monetisation of the platform at the end of 2019. Happy Blue Fish is hiring a new data engineer, and just tooks onboard a new business developer.
Next funding of € more than € 1.0 million in Q4 2019
The askblu.ai plateform is an ambitious venture on a large international market. The startup is already talking to several VCs interested in funding the sales development phase of askblu.ai.
Our goal is to reach € 22 million revenues in 2023 with 80 people, on a market bit enought to support a strong scalability
“ We are an agile team of 5 people with high competencies. In the long term, askblu.ai will be used in videogames on all supports, including streaming platforms, in the educational market, and in the App market (other then games), where the need to better user retention is crucial for success.”, Dominique Busso explains.
Advisors : Fund raising (AGORA / Franck BOULLAND), Legal (CMM Avocats / Michel MARSEILLAN)
Investors (June 2019 round) : OUEST ACQUISITIONS (Jean-François BERTIN), Hervé CONGARD, FINANCIERE PY (Pierre-Yves LE BOT), YOLE (Yohann LETUÉ), LA SYRAH (Michel CORRE), Vincent BRIENT, AGORA (Franck BOULLAND).
Contacts : Franck BOULLAND (+33 6 63 27 44 16 – franck@agora-growandbehappy.fr), Dominique BUSSO (+33 6 80 21 76 18 – dbusso@happybluefish.fr)