Free Fire creator Garena steps into social-first casual gaming by investing in Playwind Games

Playwind Games has closed a $4 million funding round led by Garena. The Free Fire creator is now stepping into the space of casual mobile titles with a social focus.

This investment will support Playwind’s future growth and “will help its mission to become one of the best game creators for the social genre on mobile.”

According to the studio’s CEO Jack Tang, Playwind also plans to hire new talent. “More importantly, this investment comes from a respected industry figure the entire team at Playwind has a tremendous amount of respect for, and we’re excited to work alongside Garena, who share our belief that mobile games are better when we play together,” he added.

Playwind Games was founded in 2020 by Tang, who previously worked on social mobile games like Sims Social, Simcity Social, and Pet Society at Electronic Arts and Playfish. He is also known as the founder of Funky Panda Games, which developed the award-winning title Monster Mountain.

Garena is a Singapore-based developer and publisher owned by Sea Limited. It is best known for its mobile shooter Free Fire, which surpassed 150 million peak DAU last year and has been leading the global download charts for three consecutive years.