One year after its $65M Series A round, French mobile games publisher Homa secured a $100M Series B round co-led by Quadrille Capital and Headline with the participation of Northzone, the leading web3 investor Fabric Ventures, Bpifrance, Eurazeo and Singular. Homa has also rebranded from ‘Homa Games’ to ‘better reflect its ambition’.
Founded in 2018 by Daniel Nathan and Olivier Le Bas, Homa develops technologies to empower game developers across the world, aiming to increase efficiency through each step of the app production and publishing cycle. Their technologies allow developers to increase their execution speed – most games are developed in weeks as opposed to months – and therefore maximise their chance of success. Since 2018, Homa has published more than 80 games downloaded by over 1 billion people, including Merge Master, which quickly became the most downloaded mobile game in the world.
Homa Lab makes this speed possible, thanks to the publisher’s tech platform that delivers market insights, ideas, analytics, and A/B testing capabilities to studios. Creators can start using Homa Lab and go from building their first prototype to monetising and optimising the growth of their first hit, all within the same platform.
The new fundraising round will support Homa in scaling its business through investments in tech and data products, tapping into a global talent pool, executing on new partnerships, and doing strategic acquisitions. Homa Lab will be a key area of investment, with significant releases expected to add further value to the creators’ toolkit in the coming months.
Off the back of the news, Maddyness caught up with co-founder Daniel Nathan for an exclusive interview:
How do you see the future of gaming? will it be primarily mobile based?
Gaming is now part of pop culture, and we think it will touch more and more people over time. You already see the worlds of gaming, music, and fashion combined. Thanks to technologies like Homa and game engines, more and more developers can create massive gaming experiences for all audiences. Mobile is the best platform to touch as many people as possible: the cost of mobile devices is decreasing, easy access to the internet, massive distribution power thanks to the app stores etc. We believe mobile will stay the primary platform. However, we think that the IP from the games will be cross-media and touch all kinds of platforms, like Mickey Mouse is not only on movies or Mario only on his bricks.
How have mobile phones changed how we consume media/gaming/entertainment?
Yes, because not only it’s easier for anyone to consume media, mobile phones are the tools to empower creators to create content. Thanks to mobile phones and the app ecosystem, it has never been an easier time to be a photographer, a blogger, or a game creator.
How will the metaverse change this in the future?
Mobile phone is access to the metaverse. As soon as you log in, you already have an avatar, access to your friends, and access to your digital life. The metaverse, in terms of going through VR or a powerful console/pc, will have more limitations because more expensive to access (money and user experience).
What are the next steps for Homa and what should we be watching out for?
Home will stay focused on building its core technologies to empower mobile game developers. We will add web3 features to our games so players can benefit from these new use cases. We will also acquire companies and complement our portfolio of apps to touch all kinds of audiences.
What is France’s role in the global gaming ecosystem? And do you have a message for the ecosystem?
Thanks to all the incentives and talents, France is a great place to start a gaming company. The strengths of the country are access to amazing talents, financing, and tax incentives; the weakness is: the international hub (it’s very hard to attract international talents due to regulation and the ecosystem); the opportunity: on mobile international distribution is instant so with talents and financing, it’s possible to create a leading company.
We need to have multi-billion dollar companies based out of France so talents and taxes stay here so the country can invest more in a great education to stay relevant in the future. To have multi-billion dollar companies, we need Europe to play like China and the US and build laws to limit the penetration of foreign companies. Facebook or Google can’t work in China, and it’s extremely hard for TikTok to execute in the US. These laws protect national companies, which can offer great salaries, careers, and taxes in domestic countries. Today France is in the top 4 countries for video games and it has a real potential to be the leader in the next decade. We (= founders, stakeholders, investors and government) must stay focused, be extraordinarily ambitious and work hard.
What would be your one piece of advice for founders looking to launch a business in this space?
Gaming isn’t fair, but if you stay creative and data-driven, you will smash the odds.
And finally, a more personal question! What’s your daily routine and the rules you’re living by at the moment?
I have 2 tiny babies, so I had to change my routine completely. I usually take care of them in the morning and drop them to the creche, go to work around 9 am, do sport during lunchtime every weekday, go home at 6.30 pm to take care of the babies until 9 pm, then work until 11.30 pm. It’s a bit intense, but the first years of a child are genuinely magical, so I don’t want to miss this, and Homa has the potential to change the content creation process forever, so I also don’t want to miss this.