GAME FUNDINGS
1. Cygames — Japan’s DeNA invests $92 million in Cygames, taking a 20 percent stake in the company that created the hit role-playing game Rage of Bahamut. Investors: DeNA. Nov. 7.
2. Trion Worlds — The maker online games raises $85 million to expand Red Door, its platform for launching massively multiplayer online games. Investors: Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, a division of media firm Bertelsmann. Jan. 19.
3. Trial Pay — TrialPay raises $40 million for its alternative payments business. Investors: Visa, Greylock Partners, T. Rowe Price, DAG Ventures, DFJ Growth and QuestMark Partners, with existing investors. Jan. 31.
5. Lumosity — Lumosity raises $31.5 million for cognitive games. The company’s brain games can help patients with cognitive risks. Investors: Discovery Communications, Menlo Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Harrison Metal, and Norwest Venture Partners. Aug. 22.
AI Weekly
The must-read newsletter for AI and Big Data industry written by Khari Johnson, Kyle Wiggers, and Seth Colaner.
Included with VentureBeat Insider and VentureBeat VIP memberships.
6. Badgeville — Badgeville takes in $25 million to gamify corporations, or increase the engagement of customers and employees using game-like tactics. Investors: InterWest Partners, with participation by prior investors. May 30.
7. Flurry — In a whopper for analytics, Flurry raises $25 million to provide intelligence for the mobile app industry. Flurry enables app makers to know who is using its apps and what it can do to get them to buy virtual items in the game. Investors: Crosslink Capital, Menlo Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, InterWest Partners, Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital, and Draper Richards. Nov. 2.
9. D.cn — D.cn raises $20 million for its Chinese mobile games platform. The company operates a big mobile game downloading site and gamer community. Investors: SAIF Partners and Qiming & Grains Valley Capital. April 18.
10. Virgin Gaming — Virgin Gaming raises $19.8 million in convertible debentures for its hosted online game tournaments, leagues, and ladders. Investors: Difference Capital Funding. June 5.
11. Meteor Entertainment — The publisher of Hawken raises $18 million for its hardcore free-to-play mech shooter game. Investors: First Mark Capital, Benchmark Capital, Rustic Canyon Ventures, and KongZhong. Oct. 29.
12. Discovery Bay Games — Discovery Bay Games raises $15 million from Logitech for iOS game peripherals. Investors: Logitech and Trilogy Equity Partners. Aug. 21.
13. Twitch — Livestreaming startup Twitch raises $15 million for eSports webcasts. Investors: Bessemer Venture Partners, Alsop Louie Partners, and Draper Associates. Sept. 19.
14. Dragonplay — Israel’s Dragonplay gets $14 million for free-to-play mobile social games. Investors: Accel Partners, Entrée Capital, and Founder Collective. April 2.
15. Major League Gaming — Aiming to be the broadcaster of live game tournaments and streamed eSports videos, MLG raises $13 million. Investors: unnamed. March 13.
16. Game Closure — Game Closure raises $12 million for HTML5 cross-platform games. Investors: Highland Capital, Greylock, Benchmark, CRV, and General Catalyst. Feb. 23.
17. FunPlus — China’s FunPlus announces $12 million in funding for its social games on Facebook. Investors: GSR Ventures. March 1.
Breaktime Studios — Breaktime Studios gets $11.5 million for free-to-play games. Investors: Azure Capital and others. March 14.
18. CrowdStar — The maker of social games for Facebook and mobile raises $11.5 million. But the firm cuts its Facebook team loose to focus on mobile. Investors: Time Warner, Intel Capital, YouWeb, The9, and NV investments. May 2.
19. Kiip — Mobile rewards firm Kiip raises $11 million to expand beyond in-game rewards. Investors: Relay Ventures, True Ventures, and Hummer Winbland. July 17.
20. NaturalMotion — Publisher of CSR Racing and My Horse raises $11 million. Investor: Benchmark Capital. June 21.
21. EverFi — EverFi raises $10 million to offer a gamified software-as-a-service education platform. Investors: Jeff Bezos, Evan Williams, Rethink Education, New Enterprise Associates, Tomorrow Ventures, Allen and Company, and Michael Chasen. Aug. 14.
22. Gamevil — Gamevil invests $10 million in third-party partner fund. Gamevil said it distributed all of the money to game developers. Investors: Gamevil. July 5.
23. Fiksu — Mobile app marketing platform Fiksu raises $10 million. Investors: Qualcomm and Charles River Ventures. July 3.
24. Meteor Entertainment — Meteor raises $10 million to create a platform for publishing digital titles like Hawken (pictured right). Investors: Benchmark Capital and First Mark Capital. Feb. 27.
25. Mogl — Mogl raises $10 million for gamified restaurant and bar rewards. Investors: Sigma Partners, Avalon Ventures, and Austin Ventures. Jan. 31.
26. Ouya — Ouya raises $8.6 million on Kickstarter for Android-based game console for the TV. Ouya surprised everyone by raising a record amount via crowdfunding. Investors: Kickstarter contributors. Aug. 8.
27. Scopely — Scopely scoops up a big seed round of $8.5 million for a mobile gaming platform. Investors: Anthem Venture Partners, The Chernin Group (headed by media executive Peter Chernin), Greycroft Venture Partners, and New Enterprise Associates. Sept. 8.
28. Jibe — Jibe raises $8.3 million to build rich real-time communications in games and apps. Investors: Vodafone Ventures, the U.S. investment arm of Vodafone Group, and Tokyo-based game creator MTI. Dec. 11.
29. PlayHaven — PlayHaven gets $8 million to fuel international expansion for its mobile gaming ad network. Investors: GGV Capital, E.ventures, and Tandem Entrepreneurs. Nov. 13.
30. Machine Zone — Machine Zone, formerly known as Addmired, raises $8 million for its free-to-play iOS games such as iMob 2. Investors: Menlo Ventures. March 27.
32. Social Point — Barcelona’s Social Point raises $7.4 million for social and mobile games such as Social Empires. Investors: Idinvest Partners, BBVA, and Nauta Capital. July 11.
33. Cloud Imperium Games — Chris Roberts, creator of Wing Commander, spent a decade in films and returned to games with $7.3 million raised via crowdfunding to make Star Citizen sci-fi game. About $2.1 million of the amount came from Kickstarter. Investors: Kickstarter fans and other crowdfunding donors. Nov. 19.
34. Session M — Boston’s Session M raises $6.5 million to improve engagement in mobile games and apps. Investors: Highland Capital Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. May 20.
35. MindSnacks — Educational game start-up MindSnacks raises $6.5 million. Investors: Sequoia Capital. Aug. 2.
36. Portalarium — Richard Garriott, creator of Ultima Online and Tabula Rasa, is back with the social gaming company Portalarium. He raised $7 million to fund his first big title, Ultimate Collector (pictured right). Investors: 8 Capital, FF Angel, BHV Venture Capital, and Garriott himself. July 10.
37. Swrve — They can’t spell. But Swrve managed to raise $6.25 million for mobile and social analytics, such as testing which feature is more popular in a social game. Investors: Atlantic Bridge Partners and Intel Capital. Nov. 12.
38. MoMinis — Israel’s MoMinis raises $6 million for mega Android game portal, PlayScape, with a huge number of titles. Investors: Gemini Israel Ventures. Dec. 9.
39. Green Throttle Games — Guitar Hero co-creator Charles Huang started Green Throttle Games to create a game controller and app that allows players to take Android games to the TV. He raised $6 million. Investors: Trinity Ventures and DCM. Dec. 4.
40. U4iA — U4iA raises $5.6 million for hardcore games on browsers. Investors: not disclosed. April 17.
41. Thatgamecompany — Jenova Chen’s Thatgamecompany raises $5.5 million to platforms with wider audiences. Chen’s company created hit games Flower and Journey. Investors: Benchmark Capital. June 14.
42. Beintoo — Beintoo raises $5 million for gamification platform. It has a loyalty rewards and monetization platform for mobile games, apps and web sites. Investor: Innogest Capital. June 22.
43. BigDoor — BigDoor raises $5 million for white label gamification platform, allowing non-game publishers to gamify their web sites with game-like mechanics that improve user engagement. Investor: Foundry Group. April 3.
44. Ignite Game Technologies — Ignite Game Technologies raises $5 million for Simraceway online racing game and cool racing simulation hardware. Investors: Steve Bellotti, Bill Budinger Jr., and Dave Marrs. Feb. 7.
45. Infinite Game Publishing — Aiming to revive an old franchise, Infinite Game Publishing raises $5 million via crowdfunding for MechWarrior Online. Investors: Fans. Oct. 17.
46. Pocket Change — Pocket Change raises $5 million for virtual currency platform for Android games. Investor: Google Ventures. July 11.
47. Tapjoy — Tapjoy invests $5 million in 130 game companies. Investor: Tapjoy. Jan. 25.
48. Red Robot Labs — Shooting to be first in location-based smartphone games, Red Robot Labs raises $5 million as part of a bid to take its location platform and Life is Crime Game into Asia. Investor: Next Media in Taiwan. March 21.
49. MoMinis — MoMinis lands $4.5 million to expand its mega portal on Android. MoMinis created PlayScape as a portal to hundreds of curated games. Investors: BRM Group and Mitsui Ventures. April 18.
50. Mindshapes — Mindshapes raises $4 million to build interactive learning apps for children. Investors: Index Ventures and Richmond Park Partners. May 29.