| [October 03, 2007] |
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$1 Billion Invested in 35 Virtual Worlds Companies in the Past 12 Months
SAN JOSE, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- 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.
Virtual Worlds Companies Funded From October 2006 to October 2007:
Company Amount Investor
-------------------------------------------------------------
---------
Anshe Chung Studios unknown Gladwyne Partners
Areae 2,000,000(a) Charles River Ventures /
estimate
Club Penguin 700,000,000 acquired by Walt Disney
Conduit 5,500,000 Charles River Ventures,
others
Donnorwood Media 500,000 unknown
Doppelganger 5,000,000 Greycroft Partners
Doppelganger 11,000,000 ComVentures
Double Fusion 26,000,000 Norwest Venture Partners,
others
Double Fusion Japan unknown Sedona Capital
The Electric Sheep Company 7,000,000 Gladwyne Partners and CBS
Emergent 12,000,000 Jerusalem Venture
Partners, others
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
Havok 110,000,000 acquired by Intel
Hipihi 7,000,000 NGI Group
Journeys 600,000 Elron Electronic
Industries
K2 Network 16,000,000 Intel Capital
Kreeda Games unknown IDG Ventures, others
Leeuu 2,000,000(a) Redpoint Ventures /
estimate
Media Machines 9,400,000 Mohr Davidow Ventures
Millions of us 1,000,000 unknown / amount estimated
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(a) KPG Ventures / estimate
Sparter 2,000,000(a) Bessemer Venture Partners
/ estimate
Stonfield InWorld unknown Credit Agricole
Timeless Cities 1,000,000 LightSpeed Gemini Internet
Lab
Trilogy Studios 3,200,000 Chichen Itza Ventures
Trion World Network 30,000,000 Rustic Canyon Partners,
others
Weblo 3,200,000 VantagePoint Venture
Partners
Whyville 440,000 Texas Workforce Commission
Winking 8,000,000 NIF SMBC Ventures Asia
Total invested $1,006,840,000
Source: Virtual Worlds Management
(a) estimates
For additional details on each of these investments and links to both investors and companies, please visit http://www.VirtualWorldsManagement.com/.
About Virtual Worlds Management
Virtual Worlds Management is the leading provider of trade events and media for the emerging virtual worlds industry. Virtual Worlds Management services include, Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo, Virtual Worlds 2008 Conference, Virtual Worlds Weekly email newsletter, the VirtualWorldsNews.com trade industry blog and Virtual Worlds Connect, the online community for professionals in the virtual worlds industry. Virtual Worlds Management maintains a strong, experienced management team, allowing it to achieve its mission to be a leading provider of high-quality, high-profile events to targeted business and professional markets. Virtual Worlds Management is a division of Show Initiative, LLC. More information about Virtual Worlds Management can be found at http://www.VirtualWorldsManagement.com.
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