Backbone, a mobile game streaming platform, announced that it had secured $40 million in a Series A funding round.
The financing round was led by Index Ventures, Discord, Roblox, Sonos, Robinhood, and others. Other investors included Sound Ventures, several celebrities such as Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd), Richard Post (Post Malone), Sean Combs (Diddy), BoxGroup, and other firms.
The firm’s CEO Maneet Khaira said that the cash would be used to expand their business operations and recruit new talent.
An ex-Google staff, Khaira founded Backbone in 2021, allowing users to stream and play major titles on the App Store and Apple Arcade. The same year, Backbone partnered with Microsoft to enable iOS users to play Xbox games on their devices via streaming. In addition, the company extended its remote gaming service for games from Amazon Luna, Google Stadia, PlayStation 5, and Steam.
“Backbone was founded with one true goal: to elevate the gaming experience for everyone, everywhere,” said Backbone founder and CEO Maneet Khaira. “Just as Sonos and Roku have done for music and television streaming, Backbone unifies all the game streaming services and core gaming experiences on mobile devices. This funding will be central to scaling the business, including recruiting new talent to fully realize Backbone’s potential. But more importantly, it will help us connect with and better serve gamers on a larger scale. This is just the beginning.”
“We are proud to have led this round of funding for Backbone,” said Damir Becirovic, Partner at Index Ventures. “There are nearly three billion mobile gamers worldwide and counting. Backbone is transforming mobile gaming for these players by turning the phone into a console-like experience. Backbone has built a unified experience that makes it simple for gamers to find games, connect with their friends, and enjoy content in a deeper and more engaging way, which we believe represents the future of mobile gaming. What’s more, this is one of the fastest-growing brands, by revenue, that we’ve seen in quite some time. We look forward to continuing to support Backbone’s efforts to serve gamers everywhere.”
The news follows a year after the company’s successful launch of its first product, the Backbone One device. After inking a strategic alliance with Xbox, the device became the #1 selling product on Amazon in the category.
Live gaming streaming services have been on the rise in recent years, with many companies acquiring or starting their own live streaming service.
In November 2021, Arcade game pioneer and developer Atari announced that it will invest $500,000 in retro game streaming service Anstream.
The same month, Las Vegas-based gaming startup Playtertainment raised $5 million to accelerate the development of its live gaming platform.
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