According to a confidential email obtained by Fortune, gaming startup Ouya is looking to quickly find a buyer.
The email, which was penned by Julie Uhrman, Ouya’s CEO, says the company “is trying to recover as much investor capital as possible.”
“Given our debtholder’s timeline, the process will be quick. We are looking for expressions of interest by the end of this month,” says the email.
Investment bank Meza Global, which handled the sale of Songza to Google, has reportedly been asked to assist with the sale. It’s not clear from the email what the asking price is for the company.
That Ouya finds itself in financial trouble is somewhat surprising; the company has had no shortage of success raising funds.
In 2012, the company raised $8.5 million on Kickstarter, making it the platform’s fifth most successful crowdfunding campaign. The company’s pitch, a $99 micro console, appeared to deeply resonate with the Kickstarter community. Later, in 2013, it raised a $15 million in a Series A round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm that was recently in the news for its case against Reddit CEO Ellen Pao. Moreover, just this past January it was able to secure $10 million in funding from Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.
Despite the hype that accompanied the launch of the Ouya, many early supporters became disillusioned by the device. Many of its worthwhile exclusives, including titles like TowerFall, quickly made their way to other consoles, and the device had an extremely sluggish user interface at launch.
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