Wozlla raises $2M to expand its HTML5 games beyond China

HTML5 game developer Wozlla is announcing today that it has raised $2 million to expand beyond China.

The deal shows that fundings of international game companies are still common as the transaction comes just a day after Hong Kong’s Animoca Brands raised $2.3 million in a private placement.

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The Beijing-based Wozlla makes titles based on the HTML5 format, the lingua franca of the web, and it had a hit recently with the launch of its Summoner of Time: Hero Reborn in the Chinese market. HTML5 games can run on any device with a web browser, enabling one game to reach players on PCs, consoles, smart TVs, and mobile devices.

The money comes from Greenwood Asset Management, a private equity firm that has backed a number of Chinese tech firms.

The Summoner of Time game is a Japanese-style turn-based role-playing game where players develop a character’s skills, equipment, and weapons. Wozlla created a comic book series based on the game’s characters. The title reached the No. 28 spot on the iOS App Store’s top downloads list in China, and it was recognized as the “Best 2015 HTML5 game” by global gaming giant Tencent, which published the title on its platform.

Wozlla plans to use the funds to continue developing original games and expand in the Americas. The company is planning on creating an office in Mexico.

Tencent made the Summoner of Time game available across its QQ platform, exposing the game to more than 815 million monthly active Tencent QQ Space users.

Wozlla’s games are developed using a proprietary HTML5 IDE (Integrated Development Environment), a tool that the company is currently finalizing and will launch commercially globally before the end of the year.

“HTML5 will lead the way in games development in the future,” said Wozlla founder and CEO Zi Bin Cheah in a statement. “China is at the forefront of HTML5 games development technology.”

Wozlla was founded by Zi Bin Cheah in 2013. Originally from Malaysia, Zi Bin is a seasoned web technology developer. Prior to starting Wozlla, he chaired W3C’s Chinese HTML5 group, the body that standardizes web technology. Wozlla has a team of 30 in Beijing and Mexico City.

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