Top Social Gaming Publisher Lands Fresh Investt to Expand Its
Portfolio
Developers Attracted to Mentez?s Expertise in Latin America
MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mentez, the largest social gaming publisher in Latin America, to
day
announced it received an investment from New York-based Insight Venture
Partners. Mentez will use the money to expand its portfolio of social
games, grow across Latin America and solidify its position as the gaming
publisher of choice in the region.
?We looked at multiple social gaming publishers in Latin America, and ?
in additional to being the leading Brazilian social gaming company ? we
believe that Mentez?s strong management team has the experience and
strategy to win in adjacent markets?
?We see increasing demand across Latin America for fun and engaging
social games,? said Juan Franco, co-founder and CEO of Mentez. ?This
investment from Insight Venture Partners will help us expand inside
Brazil ? which is our dominant market ? as well as help us take
advantage of the broader opportunities in Latin America. We?ve been
laying the groundwork for this new phase in Mentez?s growth, and Insight
Venture Partners fully supports our expansion plans.?
Orkut is the dominant social network in Brazil, with more than 50
million daily active users. Mentez manages more than 21 social games on
Orkut, and 7 on Facebook, which attract more than 22 million active
players every week. Earlier this year, Mentez signed an agreement with
Playdom to distribute the company?s gaming titles on Orkut, notably Tiki
Resort and Bola.
Mentez also runs a sophisticated, alternative payments network in Brazil
called Paymentez®. The network offers players 7 alternative payment
options, recognizing that credit cards are not widely used in Brazil.
These include a proprietary network of 25,000 Internet cafes, and more
than 100,000 retail locations across the country. Paymentez® is the
company?s flagship product, helping developers effectively unlock the
multimillion-dollar virtual goods market in Brazil. Paymentez currently
processes more than 45,000 transactions every day.
Furthermore, Mentez coordinates promotional campaigns with consumer
brands like Kraft, Walmart, Samsung, Hyundai, American Express and 20th
Century Fox. For example, Kraft offered millions of special cocoa seeds
in the social game Happy Harvest (Colheita Feliz) that players could
plant to grow chocolate trees. The end product, a chocolate bar, could
then be harvested, stolen or given to their friends as a gift. The
campaign ran for 4 weeks, promoting a Kraft-branded chocolate bar called
Mini Bis. Players embraced the campaign, praising the concept on
YouTube, Twitter and hundreds of blogs across the country ? providing
unprecedented buzz for the product.
?We looked at multiple social gaming publishers in Latin America, and ?
in additional to being the leading Brazilian social gaming company ? we
believe that Mentez?s strong management team has the experience and
strategy to win in adjacent markets,? said Jeff Horing, managing
director at Insight Venture Partners, which invested in 6Waves, Asia?s
leading social gaming company, earlier this year. ?The high quality of
Mentez?s content, its strong player base and its developer relationships
will result in continued success for the company.?
Mentez offers end-to-end services to game developers interested in
breaking into the Latin American market. The company starts by
translating and localizing the developer?s game, suggesting and building
culturally-relevant virtual items around Latin American holidays and
events. Once the game goes live on Facebook or Google?s OpenSocial
platform, Mentez helps drive traffic to the game, using in-game
advertising and an aggressive PR program. Mentez is also in charge of
community management ? helping resolve customer service issues across
Latin America.
The company manages 12 of the 20 most popular games on Orkut. These
include:
1. Colheita Feliz (Happy Harvest)
2. Segredos do Mar (Ocean Secret)
3.
Vila Magica (Party Town)
4. Vidas nas Pasarelas (Fashion Life)
5.
Bola (World Cup Soccer)
6. Resort Tropical (Tiki Resort)
7.
Gangues (Gangs)
8. Piratas do Caribe (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Insight Venture Partners Managing Director Jeff Horing will take a seat
on the company?s board of directors.
Click
here to watch a video of Mentez?s promotional campaign with Kraft
Click
here to visit the Mentez website
About Mentez
Founded in Brazil in 2007, Mentez is the leading publisher of social
games in Latin America. With offices in Brazil, Columbia, the US, the UK
and China, Mentez partners with developers to localize, market and
monetize their games in Latin America. Mentez has successfully launched
more than 20 games on the Orkut social network, and is publishing 7
games on Facebook. For more information, visit www.mentez.com.
About Insight Venture Partners
Founded in New York in 1995, Insight Venture Partners is a leading
growth-oriented, entrepreneur-focused private equity and venture capital
firm focused on expansion and late-stage investments in the global
software, Internet and data services industries. Insight?s team is
composed of experienced investors and operating executives with more
than 150 years of collective experience in its focal industries. With
more than $3 billion raised since inception and a large network of
technology experts, Insight provides strong support to its portfolio
companies. In 2009, Insight was named among the Top Ten VCs Globally by
Red Herring Magazine. For more information, visit www.insightpartners.com.
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