Digital Serbia Initiative and Omorika Ventures Fund invest EUR 300,000 in Serbian gaming studio

The Digital Serbia Business Angel Network and Omorika Ventures Fund have invested a total of EUR 300,000 in Shosha Games, an independent gaming studio from Serbia that is developing the cooperative game “Water Me & You,” Digital Serbia announced. As added, their business angels participated in the round with EUR 150,000, while Omorika Ventures, together with one of its lead investors, invested an additional EUR 150,000. This is the fourteenth investment of this business angel network and the first investment in a gaming startup, and also the first joint investment with Omorika Ventures in this industry, according to Digital Serbia.

– Shosha Games was formed with the aim of covering the complete process of video game development, from design and programming to art, production and marketing. The team focuses on developing quality cooperative games that are accessible to a wider audience, especially to less experienced players. In response, the game “Water Me & You” was developed - a cooperative adventure for two players in which a drop of water and a seed with changing shapes explore the world together, try to restore nature and save a small civilization of forest creatures. The game combines action cooperative mechanics and elements of the cozy genre to provide players with an emotional shared experience – the statement said.

Shosha Games was founded by Nikola Soskic, who is also the team lead, Aleksa Jeremic, Jana Popovic, Nikola Praskic, Aleksa Jankovic and Anastasija Redzic. Strong support from the Serbian Games Association (SGA), participation in programs such as Raising Starts, Start Smart and Katapult provided them with additional mentoring and development support, as well as access to a network of experts and investors that helped them develop a successful gaming story from Serbia.

– The investment of EUR 300,000, together with the expected matching investment from Katapult, allows us to enter the next phase of development, expand capacities, improve product quality and reach the ultimate goal of entering the market. In addition, the fact that some of the business angels who invested come from the gaming industry gives this round special significance. Their experience, market understanding and professional support from companies such as Epic Games, Nvidia, ExWord and Flat Hill Games represent a value that goes beyond the financial amount and provides us with a strategic advantage on our further growth path – said Anastasija Redzic, Marketing Strategist at Shosha Games.

The game has achieved significant success so far, the studio’s content on TikTok has reached millions of views, and on the Steam platform the game has been on more than 100,000 wish lists and has reached the top 1% of the most sought-after games. The traction contributed to the studio’s entry into Microsoft's Xbox Developer Acceleration Program, which is an important confirmation of the quality of the project and the team’s competence. the statement highlighted.

As noted, Shosha Games demonstrates all the key elements of a strong gaming startup, which include a clearly defined problem, an original approach to the genre, and an exceptionally good understanding of its audience. Their early traction and validation through programs such as the Xbox Developer Acceleration Program indicate great potential.

– We believe that this joint investment by the business angels of the Digital Serbia Initiative and Omorika Ventures will further strengthen this round and enable the team to accelerate development and raise the quality of the product to a higher level – said Adrian Djura, founder and CEO of Flat Hill Games and a member of said business angel network.

– We are extremely pleased that as Omorika Ventures we are supporting a gaming startup in the cooperative games segment, which is still in the early stages of development, but shows extremely strong potential. Although cooperative games only make up about 8% of the total number of games on the market, they generate as much as 36% of total revenue, which clearly speaks of the strength of this model and the depth of player engagement. The vision that Shosha Games has, together with the knowledge, enthusiasm and focus of the founding team, make this investment a logical step for us and we believe that they have significant global success ahead of them – said Milos Matic, General Partner of the Omorika Ventures fund.

Inicijativa Digitalna Srbija

Zatvoreni alternativni investicioni fond Omorika Ventures Fond 1 doo Beograd

Shosha games doo Beograd

Asocijacija Industrije Video Igara Srbije Beograd

Digital Serbia

Omorika Ventures

Shosha Games

Serbian Games Association

SGA

Nikola Šoškić

Aleksa Jeremić

Jana Popović

Nikola Praskić

Aleksa Janković

Anastasija Redžić

Adrian Đura

Miloš Matić