A Birmingham company which has devised an innovative game based around music festivals has secured £285,000 through crowd-funding

Soshi Games, based on the Innovation Birmingham campus at Birmingham Science Park Aston, has secured £285,000 via the SyndicateRoom equity crowd-funding platform, taking the total investment in the business to £1.4 million since it was set up in 2010.

The crowd investment complements Soshi’s existing investors - Midven and private investors.

Soshi Games is the creator of Music Festivals Game, which enables players to build and manage their own music festival and is the only game of its kind which integrates ‘real’ music.

More than 800,000 players have installed the game on Facebook so far, with the number of players continuing to grow daily.

In addition to occupying the interest of gamers the game helps artists to get discovered and provides new revenue streams for music rights holders - providing artist management, labels, merchandisers and media partners with a vehicle to monetise their social media fan bases.

Soshi also has games designed specifically for the mobile and tablet market, such as a quiz based game, entitled ‘Clue The Music’.

Cliff Dennett, CEO of Soshi Games said: “We’re gamifying the music industry. I envisage a world where the whole idea of an album cover, a CD insert, and the static imagery you still see online being used to promote albums today, being transformed to a much more interactive, engaging experience.

“Albums will evolve with their player bases over time, with new micro games launched that provide an interactive medium for gamers who love their music to uncover a more enhanced experience.

“There is such a close connection between games, hand-held devices and music consumption and we’ve brought together the best of these to create the Soshi Games business model.

“Our games enable popular acts to engage with their fan bases and earn money at the same time, but our aim is actually to launch a brand new artist globally through one of our games.”

Florence Wilkinson, commercial director at SyndicateRoom said: “Soshi Games definitely had the X Factor for our crowd, and we’re delighted to be part of the Soshi story.

"With the music industry seeing growth in live performances, digital streaming and merchandise, partnering this with the burgeoning mobile gaming industry is surely a match made in heaven."

Dr David Hardman, CEO of Innovation Birmingham, said: “This is the first significant crowd-fund investment secured by a tech start-up based at the Innovation Birmingham Campus, however, I hope this will prove a route to funding for many more over the course of this year.

“For Soshi to have secured £1.4million of investment is a testament to the strength of their concept.

“It is also very rewarding that the company has rapidly grown from a start-up in our Entrepreneurs for the Future Centre to a team of 11 people and this latest investment will enable further expansion.”

Soshi was recently featured in the Develop 100 list of the top 100 games studios in the UK.