Funding Daily: The games have it

A total of $20 million was raised today by two gaming companies. Nongaming companies? Psh, a paltry $12 million. Take that, un-fun technologies!

In related mobile games funding news, a Canadian gaming incubator is offering $150,000 convertible notes to mobile gaming studios. The teams that are currently in the incubator program will become eligible, as will future participants. The convertible notes will eventually become equity when the new studios raise their first equity financing.

Let the games begin:

Grand Cru raises $11M

Finland’s Grand Cru has raised more than $11 million in a new round of funding for its mobile game studio. The company is also nearing the debut of its first mobile game, Supernauts, which has been in development for more than 15 months. Grand Cru was formed in 2011 on the hopes of being the next major hit maker in Helsinki, which is home to mobile game juggernauts Rovio (maker of Angry Birds) and Supercell (creator of Clash of Clans). Read the full story on VentureBeat.

GridGain secures $10M

GridGain Systems today announced the sealing of a $10 million deal. This is the startup’s second round of institutional funding. This was led by Almaz Capital with participation from existing investor RTP Ventures. GridGain specializes in in-memory computing, developing software for real-time “big data” processing. Read more on VentureBeat.

Kiwi gets $9M

Android mobile game developer Kiwi has raised $9 million from Sequoia Capital. All of Kiwi’s games are on Google Play’s Top 100 grossing list and are highly rated in the Google Play store. Founders Omar Siddiqui and Shvetank Jain previously founded Trippert Labs, a social game development company that Playdom acquired in 2009. Playdom was then acquired by Disney for $763 million in 2010. Kiwi offers six character-driven games: Monsterama Park, Monsterama Planet, Brightwood Adventures, Hidden Object, Enemy Lines, and Shipwrecked. Some games, like Monster Park, are about building simulated worlds, while Shipwrecked is an adventure game, and Enemy Lines focuses on forming battle strategies. Read the full story on VentureBeat.

TrueAbility snags $2M

TrueAbility has raised $2 million for its approach to recruiting top technical talent. The company was founded by a team of former Rackspace employees to address inefficiencies in the hiring process. Rackspace provides managed cloud hosting services, and founders Marcus Robertson, Dusty Jones, Luke Owen, and Frederick “Suizo” Mendler wanted to build a system that focused on skill testing rather than resumes. Read the full story on VentureBeat.