Wildlife Games Startup Valued at US$1.3 Billion to Become 11th Brazilian Unicorn

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After collecting US$60 million in an investment round led by the US Benchmark Capital fund, the Brazilian startup Wildlife Studios has joined the list of “unicorns” in the country.

Unicorns are companies that reach US$1 billion in market value before going public, that is, without selling shares on the stock market. The developer of mobile games announced on Thursday, December 5th, that it is now valued at US$1.3 billion.

São Paulo-based Wildlife is Brazil’s 11th unicorn, according to the Brazilian Startups Association (ABSTARTUPS). Given the more than 300 billionaire startups in the world, the number of unicorns in the country is still small, but the market is maturing, according to the organization.

“If we look more deeply at the market’s maturity, we see that, out of these eleven, five of them have reached this level this year, which means an evolution and maturity of the national market, to the point where companies now get this type of global contribution,” says Tânia Gomes, vice president of ABSTARTUPS.

In her opinion, reaching the US$1 billion mark means that the business has the potential to grow.

See the list of Brazilian unicorns and the sectors in which they operate, according to ABSTARTUPS:

– PagSeguro (Financial Services)
– 99 (Urban mobility)
– Stone Pagamentos (Financial Services)
– Ebanx (Financial Services)
– Arco Educação (Technology for education)
– Quinto Andar (Real Estate)
– Nubank (Financial Services)
– Loggi (Logistics and urban mobility)
– iFood (Food Delivery)
– Gympass (Health)
– Wildlife Studios (Games)

Wildlife

Founded in 2011, Wildlife develops casual-style games for mobile devices that have no complex stories and can be played at any time. The company has already launched more than 70 of these. The business model is based on the sale of items within these games, which can be downloaded for free, known as “freemium”.

“We want to be the Nintendo of mobile games,” says co-founder of Wildlife Victor Lazarte.

Before the last round of investments, the startup had brothers Victor and Arthur Lazarte as partners (its founders), 100 employees (through an incentive plan for equity participation) and the American fund Bessemer Venture Partners.

It now has 500 employees and plans to reach 800 by 2020. By the end of the year, it expects to reach the mark of two billion downloads on Android devices and iPhones. The company has offices in Buenos Aires, Dublin, São Paulo, San Francisco, Orange County and Palo Alto.

In the last round of investments, in addition to the Benchmark fund, five other investors took part: Javier Olivan, Facebook executive; Ric Elias, co-founder and president of Red Ventures; Micky Malka, Ribbit Capital partner; Divesh Makan, partner of ICONIQ Capital; and Hugo Barra, vice president of virtual reality on Facebook.