If you’re an independent game developer on Facebook it’s hard to compete with Zynga, particularly because Zynga does such a good job of cross promoting its various games. A lot of game developers are simply hoping they get bought by Zynga at this point. But a brave few are trying to compete.
Applifier, a Finnish startup, helps those developers compete by creating a network of independent games, and then cross promoting them.
It works a little bit like LinkExchange did back in the 90s. You allow other apps to be promoted around your game, and you get the favor returned. See this article from last year for a good overview of the service.
It’s had unusual success in a somewhat crowded space, boasting 55 million monthly users of the games in its network.
And now they’ve raised their first round of financing, we’ve heard from a source. Some $2 million in a round led by MHS Capital.
We’ve reached out to the company for details and confirmation.