WedgeBuster, a L.A.-based startup mobile and social gaming outfit, has closed on a $2.2M round of Series A venture capital funding. Investors include Saints QB Drew Brees, pro skateboarder Rob Dyrdek, and Calif.-based venture outfit 37 Technology Ventures. Comprised in part of former gaming execs from Quick Hit and Fanball, WedgeBuster is seeking to develop a broad sports social gaming platform of more than 100 titles. Games in the WedgeBuster network generally are casual, arcade-style titles not using licensed intellectual property. "The mobile and social gaming spaces, particularly for sports, are very fractured. And this part of the gaming space has really gone after the female audience," said WedgeBuster co-Founder & CEO Scott Philp. "So we think there's a huge opportunity to drive significant scale catering to the male sports audience."
THUUZ ALSO LANDS FUNDING: Meanwhile, California-based technology startup Thuuz Inc., which measures the excitement level of sports events in real time, has closed a $4.2M round of Series A venture capital funding. The round was led by Liberty Global Inc., chaired by cable titan John Malone. The funds will be used to expand product functionality and distribution. Thuuz operates both direct to consumers, primarily through its mobile applications, and through media and technology partners such as Sony, Google and Dish Network. Using proprietary algorithms, Thuuz measures which games are headed to exciting conclusions and alerts users to those events. "We think there's still a ton of greenfield in this world of real-time sports discovery," said Thuuz Founder & CEO Warren Packard. "We have things like Pandora for music and Netflix for movies out there, but there's still a lot of room for the notions of discovery and recommendation in sports."
