Brian Wong’s Kiip Raises $11 Million in Series B Funding to Move Beyond Gaming
Looks like the rumors were true, mobile rewards network Kiip has raised US $11 million in Series B funding led by Relay Ventures (formerly BlackBerry Partners Fund). The company, which works with major brands and more than 400 games and app developers, will use the funding to move beyond games and into more consumer-facing products.
Kiip Founders Brian Wong, Courtney Guertin, and Amadeus Demarzi announced the raise on their company blog this morning. “We are honored that Relay Ventures has decided to lead this round. This is a firm that knows the mobile world extremely well and has an uncanny track record for identifying and turbo-charging winning ideas, and we are thrilled that Relay Ventures managing director Kevin Talbot will be joining the Kiip board of directors”.
According to Kiip’s blog post, this major infusion of capital is a validation of their game-changing mobile rewards model and will help them widen their lead in the space that they pioneered as well as establish moments-based rewards as a mainstay of how people everywhere engage with games, apps, and brands.
Canadian Wong famously raised a venture capital round worth several hundred thousand dollars for Kiip in 2010 at the ripe young age of 19, making headlines for being the world’s youngest entrepreneur to raise substantial funds from real outside investors.