Image magazine has a contender for its annual Businesswoman of the Year awards in former staffer Nikki Lannen, who used to sell ads for the glossy before moving on to start her own mobile games business. Lannen (38) hasn’t turned a profit yet with her WarDucks venture, but she sure knows how to shake the trees for venture capital.

WarDucks recently raised €3.3m in equity finance, bringing total funding raised so far to just on €5m. The latest round was led by Swedish investor EQT Ventures, which invested €2.6m, and Irish VC Suir Valley Ventures, a virtual reality enthusiast that followed on from a previous €300,000 investment with an additional €450,000. Also keeping faith is former King Digital marketing boss Angus Lovitt, who is now into WarDucks for €325,000.

Taxpayers are also board for the ride to the tune of €400,000 from Enterprise Ireland, invested in 2015 and 2017. The founder also has skin in the game; Lannen funded WarDucks with €200,000 of her own cash in its early stages.

EQT Venture partner Lars Jornow says he came across WarDucks through Motherbrain, EQT’s AI platform that uncovers promising startups by monitoring thousands of ‘data signals’. Last December EQT Ventures had its first exit when Small Giant Games, a Finnish mobile gaming studio, was acquired by Zynga in a deal worth $700m.

The WarDucks’ backers are hoping that Lannen and her team can repeat the trick. Based in Dublin and employing 16 staff, WarDucks specialises in virtual reality and augmented reality games. VR could be the Next Big Thing but isn’t there yet while AR has already had a home run.

In Association with

“There are so many valid use cases for VR technology but challenges remain,” Lannen explains. “VR hardware is still expensive, and more affordable wireless technology and high-quality VR kits are needed. These changes are happening – it just takes time for them to filter through.”

Lannen’s career journey didn’t look destined for high-tech gaming. She worked as an account executive in L’Oreal before spending six years selling advertising space for Image. Then it was on to another sales role in Facebook, when the company was just starting its Dublin operation.

Pivot to VR

At Facebook, Lannen assisted gaming companies with their social media marketing. That tweaked her interest in the sector and brought her into contact with an Irish games studio. She joined with two of the developers in that firm to establish WarDucks in 2014.

Global Agent, the first WarDucks game, achieved 600,000 downloads. Close, but no cigar. “In gaming you need scale to make things work – you need millions of players,” Lannen explains. “We didn’t have enough traction in the market to attract investors. We were also a small team in competition with thousands of apps developed by companies with massive budgets.”

The entrepreneur decided that VR gaming was the best route forward, as it’s a road less travelled. “It was a new area in which we could better showcase our abilities without as much competition. VR and AR games are quite similar to develop as traditional digital games, though you have to ensure that your VR platform remains immersive.”

Sneaky Bears, WarDuck’s first VR game, was released in March 2017 for PlayStation VR, HTC Vive and Oculus. The execution was good if a little underwhelming, and it proved WarDucks’ technical nous. Trade debtors at year-end 2017 amounted to just €104,000, and the trading loss through 2017 was €405,000, bringing the loss since inception to €1,050,000. “It’s no different to any other type of business. The high startup costs are just part of the journey,” says Lannen.

Virtual reality requires special kit but augmented reality works on regular smartphones. Now Lannen is tapping the expertise of several veterans in the gaming sphere to help WarDucks develop a new AR-based location game.

AR Enthusiasm

Niantic took the world by storm in 2016 with its AR game Pokémon Go. Though it seemed like a fad at the time, Pokemon Go made had revenue of c.€600m worldwide in 2018, according to Variety. That was a 35% increase on the previous year and the game has now topped €1.7bn in revenue.

If WarDucks can scratch the surface of that level of AR enthusiasm, it could be onto something.
A slice of the EQT ventures cash will go towards paying for the services of three games sector veterans: creative director John Romero, narrative lead Lawrence Schick and lead designer Doug Kaufman. Romero and Schick are so long in the game that they both merit Wikipedia entries.

“These guys have a world of experience in designing successful games, so we’re very excited to be working with them,” says Lannen, adding that the fruit of their labours will hopefully become apparent in the latter half of 2020.

Photo: Nikki Lannen and her WarDucks team