Run by Ex-Jam City Executive, Robin Raises $7 Million to Build Lifestyle Games

Rachel Uranga

Rachel Uranga is dot.LA's Managing Editor, News. She is a former Mexico-based market correspondent at Reuters and has worked for several Southern California news outlets, including the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Los Angeles Daily News. She has covered everything from IPOs to immigration. Uranga is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and California State University Northridge. A Los Angeles native, she lives with her husband, son and their felines.

Run by Ex-Jam City Executive, Robin Raises $7 Million to Build Lifestyle Games

A teenage boy holed up in his basement may be the image most people associate with gamers, but lifelong game-player Jill Wilson thinks the new face may be women on their cell phones looking to release a little stress.

Wilson, the company's founder, is trying to build a new genre called "lifestyle gaming" and she just got a big boost having raised $7 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by LVP along with backers from 1Up Ventures, Alpha Edison, Everblue Management, firstminute Capital, Greycroft Tracker Fund, Hearst Ventures and Third Kind Venture Capital.

"The concept itself is actually a new category of digital entertainment because it's not squarely in mobile gaming and it's not squarely in existing lifestyle content," Wilson said. "It's Pinterest meets mobile gaming."


The funding will go to building out the small Venice-based company and developing games for market. Wilson hopes the first game will be available within a year for download within the Apple and Google Play stores.

Robin Games founder Jill Wilson

Photo courtesy of Robin Games

Growing up having done puzzles with her father and playing cards with her grandmother gave the 37-year-old founder of Robin Games a lifelong appreciating of games. She joined Jam City after working for a company that did board games. She was among the first hires by the founders and an executive and that launched Panda Pop and Cookie Jam. During her time, she watched the industry boom. Mobile gaming is projected this year to top $100 billion in sales, according to a January report by market data firm App Annie

But, what's largely been missing from gaming are women and people of color at the top ranks, she said.

"We're working to change that," she said. About 80% of her staff will be women. And that along with more diversity will help her team build out what she hopes is a new genre of games.

Although Wilson wouldn't reveal much about what her games will entail, she moved away from traditional warcraft and shooter games.

"Plenty of women love those games, including me, but what is not explored are fantasies outside of that," she said. "Why aren't there more fantasies explored in game aside from the very specific types?"

Those questions propelled her to build Robin Games, along studies that showed that the largest growth of gamers was women between 35 to 50. Many of those were looking to relieve stress with some distracting games that they were playing in between moments in their lives like standing in line at Starbucks or in between meetings.App Annie found mobile gaming is the largest portion of the industry, outpacing console players. Many of those engaging in play are popping bubbles or playing shorter games that the industry calls "casual games."

"A lot of people who are gamers today don't even self identify, but it doesn't matter," Wilson said. "They're playing more than anybody else."

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LA Tech ‘Moves’: Riot Games and DermTech Welcomes New CEO

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: Riot Games and DermTech Welcomes New CEO
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

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Writing TV Shows Isn’t Like Driving for Uber

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
Writing TV Shows Isn’t Like Driving for Uber
Evan Xie

As the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike caps off its second week, one trope keeps bubbling up from picket line videos and interviews with concerned TV writers: the concern that TV writing is transitioning from full-time work into the “gig economy.” There’s real fear that the multinational conglomerates and tech unicorns that currently own the major Hollywood studios plan to do away with the idea of screenwriting as its own career, turning it into more of a freelance position or even a side gig.

Despite pushback from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) that this is not their goal, and that TV writing jobs have “almost nothing in common” with gig work, there are definitely some early indications that studios plan to employ fewer writers on shorter assignments moving forward, as a cost-cutting measure.

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This Week in ‘Raises’: Cullgen Gains $35M, LightBay Capital Lands $1B

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Raises
Image by Joshua Letona

A local biotechnology company raised new funding to support the development of Cullgen’s technology platform and internal pipeline, while a Los Angeles-based venture firm closed an oversubscribed fund that will be used to continue the firm’s focus of partnering with best-in-class management teams across tech-enabled services, outsourced business-to-business services, healthcare services, HCIT and consumer services.

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