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Dundee tech firm raises $450,000 in seed funding

Paul Farley, chief executive of ChilliConnect
Paul Farley, chief executive of ChilliConnect

A Dundee tech firm which has developed a new platform for mobile gaming has raised more than £300,000 in seed funding to fuel its global ambitions.

ChilliConnect provides a suite of tools and services to games developers, including the ability to add or change elements to games in real time and without the need for the app to be updated.

The Marketgait Business Centre company has raised $450,000 (£345,000) in funding from Techstart Ventures, Ascension Ventures and existing angel investors.

The cash injection will be used to add to the software team and marketing staff as the three-year-old company seeks more customers around the world.

Chilli chief executive Paul Farley said: “We are delighted to have funds on board that have a good track record and experience as well as the capability to follow on with more funding.

“The money raise will allow us to make the hires we need to grow the development team and bring in sales and marketing so we can actually sell the platform.”

Chilli’s team has already grown from five to eight staff this year and the firm is in the process of recruiting two additional staff.

The Chilli platform helps developers monetise mobile games, which are often free to download and rely on in-game purchases of add-ons like extra vehicles or weapons to make money.

The platform allows developers to manage games that have already been downloaded by adding new items to purchase, changing their price and even modifying how difficult a level of the game is.

Previously this sort of change to a game would only have been possible through an update downloaded via Apple’s AppStore or Google Play, which can take up to two weeks to be approved.

ChilliConnect’s cloud-based platform can allow these changes to take place immediately.

Mr Farley said the amount of equity sold in the company was within the typical seed funding level of between 10% and 20%.

He added: “Initially we were looking to raise £300,000 and when we started speaking to different funds the usual question was asked – would you like to raise more?”

“It’s always a trade off at this stage of raising a bit more and diluting the company down a bit. We wanted to have headroom to do more funding in the future.

“We want to build this into a globally successful business and our eyes are trained on generate enough growth that we can go for Series A and raise a few million.”

rmclaren@thecourier.co.uk