Report - Rovio secures $42 million in investments

Accel Partners and Atomico Ventures have co-invested $42 million in Angry Birds studio Rovio.

According to a report on Develop, the capital invested will see Atomico Ventures founder Niklas Zennström join the board of the Finnish studio.

Rovio said the investment will facilitate "growth, allowing it to increase its reach internationally, and across markets including mobile, social media and other platforms, and via merchandising and media production and partnerships."

“With Angry Birds, we have successfully launched not only a strong new brand, but also a whole new entertainment franchise,” said Mikael Hed, CEO and co-founder of Rovio. “Angry Birds will continue to grow, and we aim to create more similar success stories. We will strengthen the position of Rovio and continue building our franchises in gaming, merchandising and broadcast media.”

Angry Birds has reportedly made around $70 million in App Store sales, ad revenues and merchandise royalties and cost around $140,000 to create.

IHS Screen Digest analyst Ed Barton said the sheer amount of funds procured "is a significant amount for an online games publisher, which tends to spend far less on mobile games."

“The natural question is what are they going to do with the investment, and indeed the Angry Birds brand," Barton told Develop. "Unless Rovio is taking a more traditional approach to game development, with the longer development time and higher costs, I’m very shocked by the move.”

A Facebook version of the game is in the works and so is an animated film.