Jordan-based Tamatem is helping mobile game developers enter the Arabic market

Tamatem, one of the leading game developers in the MENA region, recently raised $2.5 million in Series A investment and aims to use the funding to expand offerings and increase market share.

 When people moved from web-based games to mobile-based ones, Hussam Hammo saw an opportunity that he just had to tap. His previous company, a gaming studio named Wizards Productions, had closed due to this change in trends and he realised that the opportunity in the mobile gaming market was huge and virtually untapped. 

Hussam went knocking on the doors of every investor he knew in the region but they all shut him down because his previous company had closed down. In early 2013, Hussam joined the acceleration programme at 500 Startups in Silicon Valley; he was the first Arab to join the programme and by the end of 2013 Tamatem was officially a launched startup.

The team started with only three employees; today, Tamatem has 26 employees, split across different departments: marketing, localisation, community and art.

The background

Hussam graduated from Princess Sumaya University of Science and Technology in 2006. Not so long after, in 2007, he received the Queen Rania Award for Entrepreneurship after founding Faye3.com, the first Arabic social network, which was acquired by Maktoob.com. After leaving Maktoob.com, in 2009, Hussam co-founded Wizards Productions, a gaming studio developing web-based Arabic games. However, Wizards Productions didn’t do as well as his earlier company, which is why Hussam was looking at other avenues.

In 2013, he founded Tamatem after returning from the acceleration programme at 500 Startups in Silicon Valley. Tamatem, which was officially launched in January 2014, has – as of today – published 40 games that have achieved more than 45 million downloads.

Tamatem partners with developers and gaming studios from around the world, takes their games and localises them to make culturally relevant for the Arab gamer and, in return, splits revenues with the studios depending on the deal.

“By localise we don’t only mean translating the game, we do everything from changing environments, music, characters, and language,” Hussam says.

Tamatem has been working and partnering with some of best developers and studios from around the world, to bring the highest quality games possible to the region. They focus on publishing racing, drifting, RPG-MMO, strategy, puzzle and word and trivia games. 

Tamatem has been growing 150 percent YoY with significant growth of 20 percent MoM.

The market

The MENA’s mobile gaming market is severely underserved with less than 1 percent of games on app stores in Arabic, which creates a huge gap for users to consume culturally relevant and localised mobile games.

According to Strategy&, the MENA’s (Middle East and North Africa) mobile gaming market is expected to become a $2.3 billion industry in 2022, triple of what it currently is. The market in Saudi Arabia currently has the highest ARPPU in the world; China, for example, has an ARPPU of $32 while in Saudi Arabia, it is around $270. 

In January 2018, Tamatem raised a $2.5 million Series A investment with funding lead by Wamda Capital, Discovery Nusantava Capital, Raed Ventures, and Vision Venture Capital. Existing investors include 500 Startups, Kima Ventures, Arzan VC, and Kai Huang.

The new funding will be used for closing bigger deals for better hardcore mobile games, expansion, and also hiring aimed at growing market share. 

“We, at Tamatem, have been working and partnering with some of the best developers and studios in the world, to bring the highest quality games possible to the region,” Hussam says. “This investment will help us localise better mobile games and will also allow us dig deeper into the Arab gaming market.”

Article By Vallabh Rao
Your Story

Tamatem secures $2.5 million to localise mobile games for MENA region

MENA mobile market expected to triple by 2022, but only 1% of games are localised to Arabic

After raising $2.5 million in Series A funding, Jordanian-based mobile publisher Tamatem is looking to plug a gap in the market by localising more games into Arabic.

According to global consulting firm Strategy&, the Middle-East North African (MENA) mobile gaming market is expected to triple its current value by 2022, growing into a $2.3 billion industry.

Additionally, the market in Saudi Arabia currently has the highest average revenue per paying user in the world; China for example has an ARPPU of $32 compared to roughly $270 in Saudi Arabia.

However, the MENA mobile gaming market is notably underserved with less than 1% of games being localised into Arabic.

“Tamatem has been working and partnering with some of the best developers and studios from around the world, to bring the highest quality games possible to the region,” said founder and CEO Hussam Hammo.

“This investment will help us localise better mobile games and will also allow us dig deeper into the Arab gaming market.”

Led by Wamda Capital, the new funding will allow the company to capture a larger share of the MENA market, establish agreements with international game developers, and hire new talent.

“At Wamda Capital we have been closely monitoring the evolution of the regional gaming market and believe there to be a very significant opportunity in further developing the space driven by strong consumer demand for access to global titles adapted for local preferences,” Wamda Capital’s managing partner, Khaled Talhouni said.

Additional investors included Discovery Nusantara Capital, Raed Ventures, Vision Venture Capital and Seed Equity Venture Partners.

Founded in 2013, Tamatem has published over 40 games, reaching a total of more than 50 million downloads in the MENA region.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Hussam and the Tamatem team in our first investment in the gaming space,” Talhouni added. “The company has a track record that is second to none in publishing and localising titles in regional markets.”

Article By Ivy Taylor
Games Industry.biz

500 Startups-backed Tamatem raises $2.5M to localise games for Arabic-speaking market

Tamatem, a startup backed by 500 Startups that creates localised versions of popular games so that they resonate better with users in Arabic speaking countries, has picked up $2.5 million in Series A funding. The round is led by Wamda Capital, with participation from Discovery Nusantara Capital, Raed Ventures, Vision Venture Capital, and Seed Equity Venture Partners.

It will be used by Tamatem to enable it to close deals with more international game developers in order to capture a bigger market share in MENA. In addition, the new capital will see the company increase headcount as it bids to attract more quality talent in the region.

That, founder and CEO Hussam Hammo tells me, is a long way from the startup’s early days when in 2013 local investors shunned Tamatem, citing its founder’s previous “failure” as co-founder of browser-based gaming studio ‘Wizards Productions’. After some initial success and a seed round, Wizards dead-pooled four years into its existence.

“When the company closed, I kept pushing to establish a mobile games company. The opportunity is huge!” he says. “Arabic is the fourth most spoken language, and almost no content is available on the app stores. I knocked on the doors of every investor I dealt with in the region, but their response was: your previous company failed, you will most probably fail again. I was a single founder and I had no team. I just had a couple of prototypes and an investment deck. I applied to 500 Startups, and they believed in me”.

To put the opportunity in context, Hammo says MENA’s mobile gaming market is “severely underserved” with less than 1 percent of app store games available in Arabic. This creates a huge gap for users who want to consume culturally relevant and localised mobile games. This doesn’t just mean translating the written or spoken parts of a game, but also other creative or story elements so that a title is relatable and will resonate in Arabic speaking countries.

For example, Tamatem localised the racing/drifting game Shake the Metal for the MENA market, including swapping out graphical elements and the soundtrack. The results garnered 5 million downloads.

Explains the startup’s founder: “When users worldwide think about this type of game, they will think about driving Ferraris and Lamborghinis. In the Middle East, users are interested in driving the Toyota Camry or the Hilux. Music was also a big win in our case, instead of using soundtracks, which a lot of the Saudi Arabia audience will consider religiously forbidden, we used a specific type of music that uses body sounds rather than instruments”.

Article By Steve O’Hear