TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: FanAI raises USD$8m (£6.2m) funding; mobile users more likely to subscribe than make one-off payments; and Electric Square to open Leamington Spa studio.

FanAI raises USD$8m (£6.2m) funding

Esports analytics and audience monetisation platform FanAI has announced it has successfully concluded a USD$8m (£6.2m) funding round, led by Japanese conglomerate Marubeni Corporation. Other contributors to the round included Allectus Capital, CRCM Ventures, Courtside Ventures, GC Tracker Fund, M Ventures, Sterling VC, and GFR Fund. The additional funds will purportedly be used to expand staff, support its existing operations within the UK and Europe, and to expand into the APAC region in 2020/2021. According to FanAI CEO Johannes Waldstein, the Santa Monica-based firm needs to raise an additional USD$10m (£7.8m) in capital prior to its Series B funding round, projected to commence in 2021. At the time of writing, FanAI has raised USD$12.5m in funding.

Aside from funding, FanAI has been steadily solidifying its market offering throughout the year. The company acquired the similar esports data analytics company Waypoint Media in January, giving the former access to Twitch viewer data through the Middleware API and Raven tracking platform. Moreover, the company announced a partnership with consumer insights agency Interpret to facilitate esports steaming audit services for organisers and teams.

Mobile users more likely to subscribe than make one-off payments

Mobile users are significantly more likely to subscribe than make one-off payments, according to the Mobile App Trends Report released by optimisation platform Liftoff. The data compiled from a total of 992 mobile apps and 77 million post-install events reveals an engagement rate of 4.8% for subscriptions, relative to 2.0% for in-app purchases. Furthermore, the cost-per-engagement for subscriptions has fallen by 58.2% in the period from September 2018 to August 2019 to USD$36.39 (£28.30), well below the USD$86.61 (£67.37) cost per in-app purchase.

While in-app purchases and advertising remain the dominant forms of monetisation for gaming apps, dedicated mobile subscription platforms are on the increase, with the launch of Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass in September, along with alternatives such as the upcoming TIM I love games service.

Electric Square to open Leamington Spa studio

Brighton-based developer Electric Square is to open a new studio in Leamington Spa and will be hiring an additional 50 employees. The new office will primarily focus on free-to-play and live services, and will be bolstered by the leadership of former Exient COO Nick Harper. Electric Square was originally formed in 2017 as an offshoot of Hove-based Studio Gobo, with both studios having been acquired by the Keywords Studios outfit in 2018.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, studio head Jon Gibson said, "The idea with Leamington is to replicate that formula, rather than change what we've already built. We want it to stand on its own two feet. It's not like the managers here are going to be remotely managing Leamington. Nick is the studio head and he is going to build his own team and his own strategy. It will become another Electric Square studio that operates in the same way that we do, but it will have its own identity and culture."