| $1 Billion Invested In Virtual World Companies This Year
Virtual Worlds Management has been busy doing some research and found out that in the past year, 35 Virtual World companies have attracted over $1 billion in investment. The numbers are pretty impressive.
$1 BILLION INVESTED IN 35 VIRTUAL WORLDS COMPANIES IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS
Research by Virtual Worlds Management reveals 33 Companies Raise $196.8 Million, Two Companies Acquired for $810 Million
SAN JOSE, CA - October 3, 2007 - Virtual Worlds Management, the leading media company tracking the virtual worlds industry, has announced findings from a comprehensive study of accountable transactions that venture capital, technology and media firms have invested more than $1 billion dollars in 35 virtual worlds companies in the past 12 months, from October 2006 to October 2007. The announcement comes just prior to the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo taking place October 10-11, 2007, at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California. The investment numbers and the future of the industry will be discussed in depth at the conference.
Of the $1 billion, $196.8 Million was invested in 33 companies. Significant investors in the space include Redpoint Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Intel, and Rustic Canyon Partners. Media companies are also making sizable investments, including Disney, CBS, Time Warner, and GE/NBC Universal's Peacock Equity Fund. The remaining $810 million went to two acquisitions: Walt Disney's $700 million acquisition of Club Penguin and Intel's $110 million acquisition of 3D virtual worlds graphics technology company Havok.
"Investors are not just venture capital firms, but also include major technology, media and entertainment companies," said Christopher Sherman, Executive Director of Virtual Worlds Management. "The amount of money invested in this period of time is staggering. We don't see any slowing in the market adoption of virtual worlds technologies and expect investment in the space to continue. In fact the market is growing significantly, with the rate of adoption of virtual worlds increasing as the technology matures and has more to offer both consumers and enterprise customers."
Investment spanned the entire virtual worlds value chain, including technology platform companies, virtual worlds developers, service providers and tools providers. Business models of the companies raising capital vary, ranging from advertising and subscriptions to virtual item sales, to enterprise software licensing, hosting and services.
| company | amount | investors | | Anshe Chung Studios | unknown | Gladwyne Partners | | Areae | *2,000,000 | Charles River Ventures / estimate | | Club Penguin | 700,000,000 | Acquired by Walt Disney Company | | Conduit | 5,500,000 | Charles River Ventures and Prism VentureWorks | | Donnorwood Media | 500,000 | unknown | | Doppelganger | 5,000,000 | Greycroft Partners | | Doppelganger | 11,000,000 | ComVentures | | Double Fusion | 26,000,000 | Norwest Venture Partners, Time Warner, Accel Partners,
Jerusalem Venture Partners, Hearst Corporation,
IDG Ventures Pacific, and Sedona Capital | | Double Fusion Japan | unknown | Sedona Capital | | Electric Sheep Company | 7,000,000 | Gladwyne Partners and CBS | | Emergent | 12,000,000 | Jerusalem Venture Partners, Worldview Technology Partners,
Adena Ventures, Walker Ventures, Copan, and Cisco Systems | | FlowPlay | 500,000 | Angel Funding | | Forterra | unknown | In-Q-Tel | | Gaia | 12,100,000 | Benchmark and Redpoint | | GarageGames | unknown | IAC | | Greystripe | 8,900,000 | Steamboat Ventures, a venture capital firm affiliated with The Walt Disney Company | | Havok | 110,000,000 | Acquired by Intel Corporation | | HiPiHi | 7,000,000 | NGI Group | | Journeys | 600,000 | Elron Electronic Industries | | K2 Network | 16,000,000 | Intel Capital | | Kreeda Games | unknown | IDG Ventures and SoftBank China & India Holdings | | Leeuu | *2,000,000 | Redpoint Ventures / estimate | | Media Machines | 9,400,000 | Mohr Davidow Ventures | | Millions of us | *1,000,000 | unknown / estimate | | Multiverse | 4,000,000 | Sterling Stamos Capital Management | | Network Game Interaction | 10,000,000 | GSR Ventures | | PlaySpan | 6,500,000 | Easton Capital | | Quaq | *2,000,000 | KPG Ventures / estimate | | Sparter | *2,000,000 | Bessemer Venture Partners / estimate | | Stonfield InWorld | unknown | Credit Agricole | | Timeless cities | 1,000,000 | LigthSpeed Gemini Internet Lab | | Trilogy Studios | 3,200,000 | Chichen Itza Ventures | | Trion World Network | 30,000,000 | Rustic Canyon Partners, Time Warner, GE/NBC Universal's
Peacock Equity Fund, and Bertelsmann Digital Media | | Weblo | 3,200,000 | VantagePoint Venture Partners | | Whyville | 440,000 | Texas Workforce Commission | | Winking | 8,000,000 | NIF SMBC Ventures Asia |
Total = $1,006,840,000
* indicates estimates
Source: Virtual Worlds Management
For additional details on each of these investments and links to both investors and companies, please visit http://www.VirtualWorldsManagement.com/
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$1 Billion Invested In Virtual World Companies This Year
Virtual Worlds Management has been busy doing some research and found out that in the past year, 35 Virtual World companies have attracted over $1 billion in investment. The numbers are pretty impressive.
Permalink