• The startup SuperScale raised a $5.4 million Series A.
• SuperScale sells a platform that helps video game companies monetize their libraries.
• Check out the pitch deck that reveals how SuperScale raised its latest round.

Video game companies often have vast gaming libraries, but not enough resources to monetize them through ads or downloadable content.

The startup SuperScale, which began in 2015, just raised $5.4 million in a Series A round led by Venture to Future Fund to help solve that problem. Asset management firm Across Private Investments and VC firm Zero One Hundred also participated. SuperScale last raised a $4 milliion seed round in 2020, bringing its total funding to $9.4 million.

SuperScale offers a tech and analytics platform that helps video game companies determine how much more money they could make by selling digital goods or ads, and which ad networks they should work. 

SuperScale works with 12 gaming companies including EA and Zynga, managing around 25 games like "Hill Climb Racing 2." Clients can pay a SaaS fee to use SuperScale's platform so they can develop their own monetization strategy, or they can hire SuperScale's staffers to spearhead that effort — in which case, SuperScale would take an 80% to 100% cut of the new revenues that are generated.

SuperScale is going to use the new funds to hire sales and marketing staffers to help develop more partnerships with gaming companies, hire engineers to build up the tech platform, and expand its physical presence in the US. "Most revenue comes from the US, where we've grown very fast, without us having any presence here," said Ivan Trancik,  CEO and founder. "That's something we'd like to fix."

The company currently has about 80 employees, and plans to have around 100 employees by the end of the year. "We think we'll have all the parts needed by then for scale and growth, and hiring will then be slower," Trancik said.

While SuperScale works with both mobile games and premium, console-based games, the company is primarily focused on helping game companies monetize their longtail — games that might have come out years ago but are still getting downloads and players. 

For instance, Fingersoft's "Hill Climb Racing 2," came out in 2016, and Trancik said SuperScale recently celebrated helping the game notch two billion downloads since its launch.

SuperScale is trying to take advantage of the fact that today, the video game industry tends to update existing video games rather than develop new ones. "Rather than launching a sequel, you update the core game," Trancik said. "You see the returns for those publishers, they recognize it's a higher margin."

Check out the pitch deck that helped SuperScale raise its latest round.