$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 MONTHSResearch 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 CapitalDouble 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 SystemsFlowPlay 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 MediaWeblo 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 ManagementFor additional details on each of these investments and links to both investors and companies, please visit http://www.VirtualWorldsManagement.com/
