HitFox Game Ventures, the Berlin-based game distribution incubator which was just founded last month, today announced the launch of two brand new startups. The two companies HitFox AppLift GmbH and HitFox App Discovery GmbH were recently founded by Kaya Taner and Xavier Rezgui, in cooperation with HitFox Game Ventures which backed the startups with a 7-digit-€ seed investment (Update – March 2023: The websites seem to be out of use, and we therefore deactivated the original links).
AppLift calls itself “the first affiliate network worldwide that exclusively focuses on mobile games”. Right from the start, AppLift is bundling together the mobile games of numerous worldwide renowned publishers such as Gameloft, Gameforge, Kabam, TinyCo and 6waves. Game publishers can profit from AppLift’s network of ‘game affiliates’, referring new mobile gamers from €0.50 upwards.
While affiliate programmes are one of the most common marketing channels for online games, AppLift saw a lack of options in the growing mobile games market. Co-Founder and Managing Director Kaya Taner explains the market gap: “AppLift meets an urgent need and sees very high demand by affiliates and game publishers alike. We will reach the goals initially set for 2012 already in August and are now ‘raising the bar’; by the end of 2012 we want to work together with 500-1,000 affiliates who refer new gamers on iOS, Android, and other platforms for at least 100 mobile game publishers.”
While AppLift offers performance-based affiliate-ads, HitFox App Discovery GmbH covers the user-side. Currently there are more than 100,000 games of very different quality on the Apple App Store, which sometimes makes it hard for gamers to find the games they want. The free app ‘Game Finder’ functions as a quality filter and aims to show only the best mobile games, clearly laid out for the user to choose from. For the launch, a specialized team of game testers chose 500 games and enriched them with additional information.
The HitFox Game Ventures holding is a vertical incubator specialized in startups and the further development of acquisitions in the field of video game marketing and sales. The incubator was formed from the game distribution startup HitFox.com, which was founded in May 2011 by serial entrepreneurs Jan Beckers, Dr. Hanno Fichtner, Tim Koschella and Ruben Haas in cooperation with Team Europe. In February 2012, they acquired Chili Entertainment GmbH, Germany’s largest advertising network for online games. Both companies are now subsidiaries of HitFox Game Ventures GmbH.
HitFox Game Ventures currently has 60 employees and is headquartered in Berlin. Its Investors include HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Tengelmann Ventures GmbH, Hasso Plattner Ventures, Kite Ventures, and Digital Pioneers.
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