Developer Funcom secured an additional 9.7 million Norwegian Krone — just over USD $1.6 million — in funding for the continued development of its Lego Minifigures Online massively multiplayer online title, the company announced.
The funding is part of a deal made on May 25, 2012 with U.S. investment firm Yorkville Advisors, in which the firm agreed to give Funcom access to additional capital if needed within 36 months of the agreement. Funds are coming from YA Global Master SPV Ltd, an account managed by Yorkville.
As of Funcom’s acceptance of this investment, the agreement is now partially exercised, according to a post on Funcom’s website. Later this week, Funcom will issue 2,203,846 new shares of its stock, valued at around USD $1.6 million, as a result of the agreement.
“We are very pleased to have increased the company’s financial flexibility with funds that will be used in preparing for the launch of Lego Minifigures Online,” Funcom CEO Ole Schreiner said in a press statemenet. “We have several times expressed a need for additional equity and have considered different alternatives to secure this. This facility has been available to us since 2012, but the timing has not been right before.”
Lego Minifigures Online, based on the popular building-block toys, is slated to launch this summer. Last month, Funcom reported declining revenue for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2014, citing weak sales, increased competition in the MMO space and a differed billings pertaining to one of its own MMOs, The Secret World.
