Heyzap, the Y Combinator startup that’s looking to become a “YouTube For Flash Games“, has closed a seed funding round led by Union Square Ventures, with independent investors Naval Ravikant (Hitforge) and Joshua Schachter (delicious) also participating. The exact size of the round was not disclosed, but it was “above $500k and less than $1 million”.
Rather than focus on building a portal, Heyzap offers a widget that includes a catalog of 12,000 games that site owners can quickly integrate into their sites. A major part of the company’s strategy lies in partnering with major online publishers to embed the widget, and it sounds like they’re seeing some success – Current features it in the site’s gaming section, and Cooliris is a partner as well. Heyzap generates revenue through advertising embedded in the widgets (most of which is served by Mochi Media). Heyzap also recently launched an API that allows other sites to present games outside of the widget.
At this point the company is operating with a very small team, with founders Jude Gomila and Immad Akhund remaining the sole employees. Akhund says that Heyzap plans to use the funding to expand.
For a taste of the kind of games HeyZap offers, check out the widget below.
@import ‘http://www.heyzap.com/elightbox/lightbox.external.css’;
var heyzap_medium = new Heyzap( ‘heyzap_games_medium’, {} );
heyzap_medium.renderMini( null, ‘medium’ );
