Posts Tagged ‘DCM’

RockYou scores another $50 million

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

After passing on an intial offer to be bought out by EA (who eventually went with Playfish as their social gaming acquisition), Redwood City, California based RockYou has recently secured an additional $50 million in series D funding. This recent influx of cash was lead by SoftBank. The news funds are expected to further enhance RockYou’s current offerings and expand development, boost global brand, as well as create products that are ripe for in-game advertising possibilities.

Currently the largest independent ad network in the social media field, with more than 213 million monthly unique visitors, the company logs over 15 billion monthly impressions. Since it’s inception in November 2005, RockYou (originally called RockMySpace) specializes in providing marketers unique and industry leading solutions to reach specific market segments. Primarily focused on widgets and social applications, RockYou has commented that with this new round of funding they will also begin venturing into the currently rather risky waters of in-game offers, i.e. the Scamville affair.

“RockYou has been an innovator in the social media industry since our launch more than four years ago, and we are excited to expand our relationship with SoftBank with this round of funding,” said Lance Tokuda, co-founder and CEO, RockYou. “In 2009, RockYou is on target to triple our revenue from the previous fiscal year, demonstrating our continued growth in the space.”

With rumored revenues in the $30 – $40 million per year range, if Tokuda’s statement is on track, RockYou is well within the revenues range of major players including Zynga and PlayEAfish.

This latest round of funding brings RockYou’s combined total raised to a healthy $118 million. This round D funding effectively doubles what previous round C had netted – $52 million from SoftBank and SK Telecom Ventures this time last year. In addition to SoftBank and SK Telecom Ventures, Rockyou’s finding arrives via Sequoia Capital, Partech International, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and DCM.

 

Outspark brings free to play Project Powder to open beta

Monday, August 11th, 2008

Project Powder is the newest offering from Outspark’s already impressive lineup of free to play games. Project Powder is a rich snowboarding adventure for all types of gamers.

The shredder features multiplayer action, a number of tricks, and hundreds of ways to customize your play experience. Based on the method of play, gamers can play for 5 minutes or several hours.

“Project Powder utilizes all of the benefits of online gaming to make an extreme sport a community experience,” said Susan Choe, Outspark CEO and founder. “Our overarching goal is to expand our free-to-play Virtual Playground into a diverse entertainment destination, and Project Powder is a great addition to our game portfolio.”

While Project Powder is still in an open beta with the official release at the end of the summer, it still packs in a number of exciting features:

  • 33 monster courses(10 available exclusively for open beta)
  • 3 challenging game modes
  • Intense multiplayer action with up to 7 opponents
  • Premium gear including new snowboards, clothing and accessories for your character
  • Dozens of unlockable tricks

Outspark plans on a number of community events during the open beta, including a user generated video contest.

Check out the open beta at: www.project-powder.com

About Outspark
Outspark is an entertainment services company that publishes and operates engaging online multiplayer games. Featuring a portfolio of immersive free-to-play games and related content, the company is building an online destination where members come for the games and stay for the community. Backed by Tencent, Altos Ventures and DCM, Outspark is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with a subsidiary office in Seoul, Korea. For more information, visit www.outspark.com.

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