This Week in Apps: Sneak peek at TikTok shopping, new iOS and Android betas, kids’ app Prodigy hit with FTC complaint
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.
The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020.
Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.
Artie raises $10M for app-less mobile games
Artie, a startup looking to rethink the distribution of mobile games, announced today that it has raised $10 million in funding.
There are some big names backing the company its latest investors include Zynga founder Mark Pincus, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Thirty Five Ventures, Scooter Braun’s Raised In Space, Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Susquehanna International Group, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment + The Sixers Lab, Googler Manuel Bronstein and YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley.
This actually represents a pivot from Artie’s original vision of creating augmented reality avatars. CEO Ryan Horrigan said that he and his co-founder/CTO Armando Kirwin ended up building distribution technology that they felt solved “a much bigger problem.”
Artie Set To Disrupt $80B Mobile Gaming Industry By Eliminating The Need For Apps
Chad Hurley, Mark Pincus, Scooter Braun, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman s Thirty Five Ventures Back Next-Gen Instant Gaming Platform Artie
News provided by
Share this article
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/
Artie, a platform for next-gen instant mobile games, today announced a $10M seed round that includes a diverse group of top investors from gaming, technology, sports, and entertainment. Artie s technology enables high-quality mobile games to be played directly inside social media, video, and messaging platforms without any additional app downloads, API access, or integration needed. The company with team members from Activision/Blizzard, Jam City, Playtika, Infinity Ward, Disney, Snap, Mozilla, and Facebook is focused on making mobile games easier to discover and play for consumers while improving the economics of mobile games for developers and creators.
News Category Global Banking & Finance Reviews
Versus Game Secures $4 Million Financing Round Led By Raised In Space & Plus Eight Equity Partners
Versus Game Secures $4 Million Financing Round Led By Raised In Space & Plus Eight Equity Partners
Versus Game, the world’s leading consumer prediction/social wagering marketplace, has announced it has completed a $4 million Series Seed round of financing, allowing the company to massively expand its user base through engaging more influencers in the entertainment, sports and social media spaces. The investment round was co-led by Raised In Space and Plus Eight Equity Partners. Raised in Space is a joint venture between Scooter Brauns Ithaca Holdings and Ripple’s Xpring. Raised in Space partners, Shara Senderoff and Zach Katz supported the investment with their signature hands-on guidance and partnership services.