April 1, 2012
Just one year after coming out of beta, and six months since its UK launch, MiniMonos (it means Little Monkeys in Spanish) is taking off in the UK. The company has raised sufficient capital to grow a team in England and focus on that market. User numbers have grown to over 800,000, and revenue is now more than the cost of acquiring cutomers.
With an average month-on-month revenue growth of 30% over the last year, and members from over 150 countries, MiniMonos is clearly appealing to the target audience of 8-12-year-old boys and girls.
MiniMonos has raised over NZD$3.5m from NZ and European Angels over the last 2 years, after the company was seeded with money from the founder, Melissa Clark-Reynolds, and a Christchurch Angel investor.
Says Clark-Reynolds:
“We are now poised to open a UK office and grow even more quickly. 90% of our revenue now comes from the UK, with 10% from the US and Canada. Launching pre-paid gift cards in Sainsbury’s in time for Christmas was a winner for us”.
Kids also get in-world rewards by completing real-world eco-projects through the MiniMonos EcoMonkey program. Through their projects, players have established recycling programmes in their schools, up-cycled old clothes to make toys, planted gardens, and cleaned rivers and lakes. 50 children took part in the pilot project in 2011. Over 700 projects have now been approved. National Geographic Kids Managzine in the UK picked up on the initiative and showcased it in their March magazine.
“These kids are learning to equate positive actions with positive feelings: fun, delight and accomplishment,”
“Our aim is to have a million children taking real-world eco-action as a result of playing on MiniMonos.”
With strong growth in sales, new investors and a European presence, MiniMonos’ goal is getting even closer.
“It feels like just a matter of time, now”.
MOVAC Fund 2 is an investor in MiniMonos.
