Game and virtual world fundings reach $936.8 million in 2008

http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/26/second-revision-game-and-virtual-world-fundings-reach-935-million-in-2008/
Now that we are talking about game economy, I found this article just updated a list shows 112 game companies raised more than $936.8 million worth of venture capital and angel funds in 2008.

Since there are too many companies on the list, I will just show the top 20. The rest are on the website I mentioned earlier.

1. 9You – $100 million for virtual entertainment community
2. BigFish Games — $83 million for casual downloadable games

3. Trion World Network — $70 million for online multiplayer server games. (The company is working with the Sci-Fi channel on an episodic online game that ties into a TV show and has other titles in the works too.)

4. Real Time Worlds — $50 million for online games such as All Points Bulletin

5. Turbine, maker of the Lord of the Rings Online — $40 million for massively multiplayer online games

6. G10 online game company — $38 million from China’s The9

7. Zynga — $29 million for social games

8. GoFish — $22.9 million youth-oriented ad network with focus on virtual worlds

9. PrimeSense – $20.4 million for gesture-control 3D cameras

10. Oberon — $20 million for casual/mobile games

11. Playfish — $17 million for social games

12. GameDuell — $17 million for skill-based games

13. Playspan — $16.8 million for virtual goods platform

14. NGI Group — $15.7 million for Japanese virtual world

15. Nurien Software — $15 million for fashion-oriented social online game

16. Social Gaming Network — $15 million for Facebook and other social games

17. IGG — $14.5 million in two rounds for casual massively multiplayer online games

18. Ukash – $14.4 million for virtual world payment systems

19. Expresso Fitness — $14 million for its virtual cycling exercise bikes

20. Play Hard Sports — $13 million for casual online sports games

Moreover, here is the revised video game financing list: 115 game companies raised $663.1M in 2009
Once again, I will only list the top 20.

1. Zynga — $180 million for social games on Facebook. Investors: Digital Sky Technologies, Institutional Venture Partners, Andreessen Horovitz, Tiger Global.
2. Playdom – $43 million for social games on Facebook, MySpace and other platforms. Investors: Rick Thompson, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners.
3. Smith & Tinker — $29 million (includes seed round) for hybrid web-toy Nanovor game. Investors: Alsop Louie Partners, DCM, Foundry Group, Leo Capital Holdings and billionaire Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital.
4. PopCap Games — $22.5 million for casual games (such as Plants vs. Zombies, pictured) on the web, mobile, and social networks. Investors: Meritech Capital Partners, Larry Bowman and John McCaw.
5. Zula — $20 million for science-based kids virtual world, Zula World. Investors: anonymous investor.
6. Zynga — $15.2 million for social games on Facebook. Investors: Kleiner Perkins, Foundry Group, Avalon Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners and Union Square Ventures.
7. Offerpal Media — $15 million for special offers for online social games. Investors: D.E. Shaw, Interwest Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.
8. Emergent Game Technologies — $12.5 million for game development tools. Investors: Hopewell Ventures, Worldview Technology Partners, Jerusalem Venture Partners, Walker Ventures and Adena Ventures.
9. gWallet — $12.5 million for virtual currency and offer provider. Investors: Adams Street Partners, Trinity Ventures, Stanford University and others.
10. SendMe – $12 million for direct-to-mobile entertainment and games. Investors: Triangle Peak Partners, Spark Capital, Amicus Capital, GrandBanks Capital, and True Ventures.
11. Caustic Graphics — $11 million (announced in 2009, raised earlier) for ray-tracing graphics chips: Investors: undisclosed.
12. IMVU — $10 million for 3-D virtual chat rooms and virtual goods business. Investors: Best Buy Capital, and existing investors Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital, and Bridgescale Partners.
13. Ngmoco — $10 million for iPhone games (pictured) and Plus+ social gaming platform. Investors: Norwest Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins.
14. Nurien Software — $10 million for realistic fashion-oriented virtual world. Investors: Northern Light Venture Capital, Globespan Capital Partners, New Enterprise Associates, and QiMing Venture Partners.
15. Super Secret — $10 million for kids virtual world. Investors: Opus Capital.
16. Scene Systems — $8.3 million to use video game tools to reconstruct accident scenes. Investors: Philip Swinstead, Cem Cesmig (Newtonmore Advisors), Sophia Antipolis, and Caprilles Investment Fund.
17. Asetek – $8 million for liquid cooling for game PCs. Investors: Northzone Ventures, Sunstone Capital, and KT Venture Group.
18. Bigfoot Networks — $8 million for faster networking cards for gamer PCs. Investors: North Bridge Venture Partners, Palomar Ventures and Raven Venture Partners.
19. Outspark — $8 million for free-to-play massively multiplayer online games. Investors: Syncom Venture Partners, SBI Investment, Mille Plateaux, DCM, Tencent and Altos Ventures.
20. Riot Games – $8 million for real-time fantasy combat game, League of Legends (pictured), on the web. Investors: Tencent, Benchmark Capital, and FirstMark Capital

http://venturebeat.com/2010/03/09/revised-video-game-financing-list-115-game-companies-raised-663-1m-in-2009/