The founders of Sneaky Panda are mobile game veterans with decades of collective entrepreneurial experience including Ron Rejwan, co-founder of Jelly Button (acquired by Playtika), and Niv Touboul, co-founder of Upopa Games (acquired by ironSource). Their goal is to establish completely new genres in the mobile games market, starting with the Luck-puzzler genre.
Sneaky Panda, a mobile gaming company on a mission to create innovative gameplay by introducing the new “Luck-Puzzler” genre, today announced a $6 million seed round led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with Remagine Ventures, FireArc, Joakim Achrén, and Eyal Chomski also participating. The funding will be used to recruit additional talent to join the team at its Israel-based headquarters as they work to launch the company’s first title next year.
The company was founded by mobile game veterans with decades of collective entrepreneurial experience including Ron Rejwan, co-founder of Jelly Button (acquired by Playtika), and Niv Touboul, co-founder of Upopa Games (acquired by ironSource). The studio’s first title is set to launch in 2022 and will target teens and adults alike. The puzzle gameplay requires collecting items and strategic plays to create surprising synergies.
“I’ve found that the best way to dominate a market is to create it. During my time at Jelly Button, we introduced Pirate Kings which brought the social casino genre to life and now generates billions of dollars a year. The mobile gaming market is saturated with companies that are trying to make better versions of existing products, but our approach at Sneaky Panda is to introduce the “Luck-Puzzler” genre, a completely new genre that puts more emphasis on skill and strategy than current mobile games in the market. A new generation of mobile players have emerged and they are ready for more diverse and challenging gameplay experiences, ” commented Ron Rejwan, CEO Co-Founder of Sneaky Panda.
“Ron and Niv are highly experienced, extremely versatile, driven entrepreneurs whose speed and quality of execution is outstanding. Mobile gaming represents one of the fastest-growing gaming platforms worldwide and the market is ripe for genre innovations. The Sneaky Panda team is creating a completely new genre in the mobile gaming space and we believe there is a sizable audience that play puzzle and luck games that will appreciate the innovative design of Sneaky Panda’s first title and become loyal community,” commented BITKRAFT Ventures Founding Partner, Malte Barth.
