Egg Baby dev Nix Hydra secures $5M to make more games for young women

Nix Hydra, the developer of Egg Baby and other "apps backed by both teenage girls and venture capitalists," secured $5 million in funding from Foundry Group, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

According to the publication, Nix Hydra will use the funds to create new games in the style of Egg Baby. Launched last year and inspired by high school projects, Egg Baby lets players adopt, feed, wash and otherwise care for an egg. According to co-founder Lina Chen, 85 percent of Egg Baby players are women. 

Co-founder Naomi Ladizinsky said that the developer is determined to create new types of mobile games. 

"This market is new, but so far we’ve seen a lot of repeats with the same ideas iterated on over and over again,” Ladizinsky said. “It’s a tech dude’s perspective."

Ladizinsky  explained to Venture Beat what kind of young women Nix Hydra hopes will play its games. 

"These are the people who hang out on Tumblr a lot," she said. "They’re really careful what they post to Facebook because their parents are on it. They are exploring who they are and enjoy trying out different disposable identities.”

Nix Hydra expects to hire 20 employees during the next year, turn Egg Baby into a franchise and launch two new games. The developer also received individual investments from Gyft's Vinny Lingham, Mry's Matt Britton and Riot Games investor Brad Schwartz.

Egg Baby is available free in the iOS App Store.