Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor today announced that Enterprise Ireland has invested some €50,000 in game development company 9th Impact.

Enterprise Ireland invested in the company as part of their Competitive Start Fund which invests for equity in high potential, export oriented, start-ups.

The Galway-based company develops games for Android and iOS and is best known as creators of the official Biker Mice from Mars games.  

Minister Mitchell O’Connor speaking about the announcement said: “9th Impact was an ideal fit for the fund. Over 95% of their sales are already exports to people playing their games all over the world.  With support from Enterprise Ireland they can continue to grow exports and most importantly, create more high skilled jobs in Galway.”

“I visited the studio in Galway recently and saw the blend of creativity and technical skills that game development involves, Ireland has a depth of talent in both areas and companies like 9th Impact are harnessing these to tackle what is a $82bn global market for video games.” She added

The investment will be used to expand employment at the company, according to Head of Development, Finn Krewer: “We currently have a team of eight designers, artists and programmers and will expand to ten this year. We’ve five new games in development currently and are in negotiations with TV studios and publishers about other projects, so it’s going to be a busy end to the year.”
 

Source: www.businessworld.ie