Jul 15, 2008
PR-inside are reporting that Gaia Online, the online community for teens, has secured $11m Series C funding from Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). At a time when eMarketer is predicting the number of teen internet users visiting virtual worlds will jump from the reported 8.2 million users in 2007 to 20 million in 2011.
In January, Time Warner made a strategic investment in the Gaia economy which sees 100,000 transactions each day and Gaia’s forums have already exceeded a billion postings. Other investors in Gaia include: Benchmark Capital, RedPoint Ventures, DAG Ventures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Time Warner.
www.gaiaonline.com
Tags:
Benchmark Capital,
DAG Ventures,
Gaia Online,
Institutional Venture Partners,
Redpoint Ventures,
Sony Pictures Entertainment,
Time Warner
Mar 10, 2008
Gigya, the Silicon Valley company that lets widget companies like Rockyou and others track how advertising performs on their widgets across the Web, has raised $9.5 million in a second round of funding.
The financing was led by the Mayfield Fund. Existing investors Benchmark Capital and First Round Capital participated.
Gigya develops tools for distribution, tracking and monetizing of widgets. Its widget distribution platform boosts the sharing and posting of widgets via social networks & blogs. With Gigya, Widget owners let their site visitors post widgets directly into their profile or blog with one click. Widget providers also get access to detailed reports with information on widget distribution & performance.
Gigya’s partners include RockYou, Webshots, Metacafe, Snapvine and hundreds others. Widget owners can learn more about Gigya and get started at www.gigya.com/wildfire.
Tags:
,
Benchmark Capital,
First Round Capital,
Gigya,
Mayfield Fund
Mar 4, 2008
The folks at PEHub are reporting that ManiaTV Network Inc., a Denver-based Internet television network, has raised $5.5 million in Series C funding, according to a regulatory filing. DAG Ventures led the round, and was joined by return backers Benchmark Capital, Centennial Ventures and Intel Capital. ManiaTV has now raised around $23 million in total VC funding since late 2004.
The ManiaTV Network delivers pop culture entertainment to more than 10 million youth and young adult viewers every month. Having launched in September 2004, ManiaTV offers a variety of leading edge programming focused primarily on the categories of Music, Comedy, and Hollywood. All shows on our network are hosted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with hosts ranging from Hollywood celebrities like Tom Green, Dave Navarro, and Jamie Kennedy, to our very own in-house celebrities like Christy, Megan, and Jonny Schoolbus.
ManiaTV’s business model is built on a foundation of show sponsorships, offering blue chip advertisers and leading consumer brands a variety of unique, high value advertising opportunities for reaching and connecting with the youth and young adult markets.
www.maniatv.com
Tags:
Benchmark Capital,
Centennial Ventures,
DAG Ventures,
Intel Capital,
ManiaTV
Feb 18, 2008
The Second Life experience is coming to mobile. The 3D virtual world platform, created by Linden Lab will soon be available on 3G handsets via Vollee’s streaming mobile games service. Beta trials for Vollee’s new mobile offering for the Second Life Grid platform (an inter-connected platform which extends beyond the mainland of Second Life itself) will be open to those who pre-register.
Vollee’s Second Life mobile service will enable access to the virtual world of Second Life for Residents to explore, interact and communicate on-line. The Second Life mobile experience reformats the online world to fit on mobile phone screens while mapping the keys on handsets to commands in-world. Existing
