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Social games analytics and pesonalization engine Sogamo raises funds from IncuVest

Sogamo, a Singapore-based real-time analytics and personalization engine for social games, has recently closed USD 500K in seed funding from Incuvest and NRF under the Technology Incubation Scheme (TIS). The funds will help ZelRealm, the company behind Sogamo, scale and market their product. Unlike conventional application data analysis systems, Sogamo doesn’t just focus on generating data. Instead, it interprets data and turns it into actionable recommendations. ZelRealm, founded in 2007 by a group of game enthusiasts and engineers, claims it is one of the first companies in the industry to make use of gamers’ profiles to automate personalization in-game events.

The platform, which works on Flash games, also offers real-time market dynamics visualization metrics and cohort testing. Game publishers can use Sogamo to improve game stickiness, lower churn rate and increase monetization by personalizing in-game events in accordance to individual user personalities and preferences. According to a BI Intelligence report, the US social gaming market will exceed USD5.5 billion in 2015. In addition, the social games market, including smartphones, is expected to more than double from last year. Given the expansive proliferation of social games in the industry, game developers and publishers now face more competition in retaining their players. Social gaming is also lucrative in Asia. In South Korea, the online games market is worth some USD3B, and the industry has been pioneers of concepts like virtual goods, which are now ubiquitous in social games. Japan is another key player with mobile social networking services generating a revenue of USD2B, with social games featuring heavily on platforms like mixi, GREE, and DeNA.

Incuvest is one of several of the new TIS incubators that have finalized seed investments lately. Golden Gate Ventures recently confirmed that it has invested in TradeGecko, RedMart, and Coda Payments, while TNF Ventures announced that it is funding TradeHero and Flocations.