The Next Web

» eRepublik gets €550,000 to build a bigger world

   

eRepublik gets €550,000 to build a bigger world

Ernst-Jan Written on June 10, 2008 – 5:40 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Almost everybody sometimes secretly fantasizes of leading completely different life. Don’t you? The people behind eRepublik probably realized this when they were building their massive online multiplayer social strategy game.


Co-founder Alexis Bonte at Menora TechTalk 2008

Players can become journalists, politicians, soldiers, nurses, or whatnot, in different countries. Most of the fantasy societies are user-generated and players can either choose to play casually or for the money. Yet they have one thing in common, the time it takes them to play the game: 14 minutes a day.

The Madrid-based start-up is in a private beta since November 2007. Private is a very broad definition, as 395,000 users are testing the service.

Till today, the service took €200,000 in angel funding. But now they’ve closed another round and received €550,000 - mainly from French venture capital fund AGF Private Equity and a large group of business angels including the founders of Lastminute, Livra and Intellego. The co-founders Alexis Bonte and George Lemnaru will use the money to expand the game.

Erepublik received a honorable mention at the Le Web Start-up Competition last December. I think that was absolutely correct, considering the impressive number of users and the stickiness of the game.

I hope you like that post!

The Next Web Blog covers start-up news from all over the world (not just the Valley), exciting new technologies and inspiring entrepreneurs. If you're new here, you may want to read our 'About' page and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Do you have a start-up that we should write about? Contact us! Thanks for visiting and hope you come back again!
Add to Google Add to netvibes Subscribe in Bloglines
About the author: Ernst-Jan is blogger and co-organizer of BLOG08, who previously worked in New York to cover news at the United Nations. Next to writing, he's also a singer in the band Christina Five. Follow him on Twitter or read his personal blog Dutchproblogger.com .

6 comments/trackbacks to “eRepublik gets €550,000 to build a bigger world”

  1. Jun 11, 2008: Alexandru Ionescu » Blog Archive » eRepublik.com finantat cu inca 550.000 euro

    [...] ERepublik.com a fost finantat cu inca 550.000 euro in schimbul a 11% din actiuni, de catre fondul de investitii, AGF Private Equity (200.000 euro), un grup de antreprenori internationali si angel investors (200.000 euro) si Alexis Bonte (150.000 euro). articol integral in zf.ro si thenextweb.org [...]

  1. By Gen|G^2 on Jun 15, 2008

    MAYBE WITH THIS NEW FOUND WEALTH THEY CAN FIX ALL THE GOD DAMN BUGS IN THE GAME.

    OH WAIT, IF THERE WERE NO BUGS IN THE GAME, IT WOULDNT BE EREPUBLIK.

    I BET THEY SPEND IT ALL ON WIGS

    [Reply]

  2. By William on Jun 15, 2008

    “The co-founders Alexis Bonte and George Lemnaru will use the money to expand the game.”

    aka Wig parties.

    [Reply]

  3. By Tanso on Jun 17, 2008

    If you want to play Erepublik I have invitations left. Just send me a note and I shall invite you.

    martins.oberg@gmail.com

    [Reply]

  4. By Hossein on Jul 28, 2008

    Get Quick Erepublik Invation in less than 2 Hours: http://blackmice.org/erepublik

    [Reply]

  5. By Ian on Oct 5, 2008

    I have 5 invitations left email me at ithomasimpson@yahoo.com

    [Reply]

Rate this post

Post a Comment

Subscribe to:

 RSS feed   Comments  Email update Email

Add to Google   Add to netvibes   Subscribe in Bloglines
Sign up for The Next Web Update (example) & get invited to ALL our events!





Accenture Innovation Awards MailChimp
advertise! ZayPay


This blog is currently sponsored by Accenture, Netlog, eBuddy and Wakoopa. Interested in becoming a sponsor too? Check our advertising opportunities for more information.



Mega Sponsors:

myMailMarket email marketing ZayPay
Organizers United Linkedin Group Fleck

Copyright 2006-2008 © TheNextWeb.com - Entries (RSS) / Comments (RSS)