[Spain] TagUin, a vertical social network for video gamers, has secured a first funding round of €200.000. 19 investors in total have taken part and comprise of friends and family, and some renown Spanish angels, such as François Derbaix (of Toprural, among others), José Luis Vallejo and Juan Pané (Buyvip co-founders), Carlos Blanco via Grupo ITNet and Axel Serena via BeGreat.
The above business angels will join Javier Fernandez (CTO), Alberto Rodriguez, Andrés Fernández-Longo and Daniel Brandi (CEO) on the board.
TagUin, which competes with US-based Raptr and the UK’s Playfire, adds a social experience to traditional video gaming, with content targeted at games on the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, DS, along with the desktop PC. Users can follow, vote, discuss games, platforms, game consoles, create and manage game clans and challenge fellow members to matches. A specialized social network, essentially. The new funding will help TagUin grow the team and invest in an online marketing strategy to expand the site’s user base.
The company’s modest first round compared with its competitors – Raptr received $3 million in angel funding back in 2007 – is more proof that funding in Spain is in a world of it’s own, quite different than what you’d find in say the UK, Germany or France. Yet TangUin has plans to expand out of Spain into other markets.
The question is: can they compete with Playfire and the likes on very different budgets? They certainly have their work cut out, but I continue to be hopeful that they and other ambitious and experienced teams will be able to attract attention and funding outside of Spain.