Rocky Road, an Icelandic mobile gaming startup from the founders of QuizUp and Trivia Royale, announced today a €2.8 million seed round led by Luminar Ventures. Existing investors, Crowberry Capital and Sisu Ventures are also participating in the round along with notable angel investors David Helgason, founder of Unity, and Matthew Wilson, a former Rovio executive.
Based in Reykjavik, with tech teams in London and Kyiv, Rocky Road is setting out to revolutionize social mobile gaming. Early test trials of their new social gaming network have confirmed that the company has tapped into a burgeoning demand for genuine social interactions in the mobile gaming space.
The platform is the brainchild of founders Thor Fridriksson, Vala Halldorsdottir and Sveinn Davidsson, the same minds behind QuizUp — a trivia game that amassed over 100 million users globally. Unlike traditional mobile games, Rocky Road’s forthcoming platform focuses on nurturing real-world social connections among players.
“We are elated to partner with Luminar Ventures and Crowberry Capital, as well as some distinguished angel investors, who collectively share our belief in the transformative power of social mobile gaming. This funding not only reaffirms the potential of our company but also propels us closer to our mission of crafting gaming experiences that unite players across the world,” said Thor Fridriksson, CEO and co-founder of Rocky Road Games. “With the backing of such influential players in the industry, we are poised to redefine the boundaries of social interactions in mobile gaming.”
While the company continues to operate in stealth mode, the successful trial run and fresh capital injection signal aggressive development and expansion plans for the coming months.
“We’re thrilled to make our first Icelandic investment in serial founders with a stellar track-record in the gaming space,” commented Jacob Key, managing partner at Luminar Ventures. “We agree with Thor’s vision that they could be building Iceland’s first global tech unicorn.”
For investors, Rocky Road represents not just a gaming company, but a tech-driven social catalyst.
Jenny Ruth Hrafnsdottir, founding partner of Crowberry Capital, added: “I just love the originality of the concept and how the team backs it with their long-standing experience in building for millions of users. This product is a testament to experience meeting originality. Outstanding product performance data made it an easy decision to continue backing this team.”
Founded in 2021, Rocky Road’s approach to integrating social dynamics into mobile gaming is likely to resonate beyond the gaming community, as the market anticipates Rocky Road’s next release.
This Seed round comes on top of Rocky Road’s €2 million pre-seed round which was led by Crowberry Capital and Sisu Ventures last year. This brings their total fundraising to €4.9 million, aimed at developing their innovative social gaming network.
