Lagos Life has not announced a Series A. The only round Vatar Inc., the company behind the viral browser game, has made public is $500,000 from angel investors on 9 October, eight days after the game went live on 1 October.
Technext reports the round values Vatar at $10 million and closed in less than a day, with Flutterwave chief executive Olugbenga Agboola investing through his fund, Resilience17, alongside Oo Nwoye, Terra Industries chief executive Nathan Nwachuku and Mono chief executive Abdulhamid Hassan. Vatar's own announcement calls it an angel round and names Agboola, Nwachuku and Hassan.
What the game is
Lagos Life is a Sims-style life game that runs free in a web browser, with no download. Players make a character, find a job, earn virtual naira, pay rent, ride danfo buses and meet other players around real Lagos landmarks, from Amala Shitta to Quilox.
Those numbers are Vatar's own and have not been audited. On Thursday afternoon the game's live counter showed about 376,000 people active that day. Technext reported 4.3 million players from 15 countries by 8 October, with more than 200,000 online at peak.
How it makes money
- In-game billboards, branded vehicles and storefronts sold to real brands
- Musicians paying to have their songs played in the game's virtual clubs
- Players buying virtual currency with real money
Vatar says it has earned and contracted more than $170,000 since launch, according to Technext, a figure that mixes cash received with signed deals. It has not said whether it is profitable. Vatar says the new money goes into product, marketing, hiring and new cities: its site says three cities are live and lists more as coming.
