ngmoco, a new publisher of games for iPhone, has raised a Series A round of financing led by premier venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) with participation from Maples Investments, an early stage fund with deep expertise in gaming and social networking.
Bing Gordon, KPCB partner and former chief creative officer, Electronic Arts, will join the ngmoco board.
“The iPhone is the next great game platform and we see an incredible opportunity to build games worthy of the customers that use it,” said Neil Young, CEO, ngmoco, in the press release. “With Bing, Kleiner Perkins and Maples Investments, we have great partners who share our passion to create a new type of publisher and radically reshape the mobile games industry.”
ngmoco will use the investment to create, acquire and publish games built specifically for the iPhone and made in collaboration with the best and brightest gamemakers in the world.
In March 2008, KPCB launched the iFund, an investment initiative to fund market-changing ideas and products that extend mobile computing. The initiative funds innovators developing applications, services, and components for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch platforms.
“Apple’s iPhone has the potential to be one of the best portable gaming platforms ever created,” said Gordon in the press release. “After a decade of working closely with Neil on category-defining games, I believe ngmoco has the potential to produce killer apps that will help define this new device.”
Since its founding in 1972, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has backed entrepreneurs in over 500 ventures, including AOL, Amazon.com, Citrix, Compaq Computer, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Genomic Health, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Netscape, Lotus, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, VeriSign and Xilinx. In March 2008, KPCB announced its $100 million iFund initiative targeted at innovation in the Apple iPhone and iTouch platform. KPCB portfolio companies employ more than 250,000 people. More than 150 of the firm’s portfolio companies have gone public. Many other ventures have achieved success through mergers and acquisitions.
Maples Investments is a Silicon Valley based, early-stage micro-fund focused on start-ups that fundamentally disrupt existing large markets or create new market categories. The firm currently works with consumer-focused companies such as ngmoco, digg, Twitter, Kongregate, IMVU, and Aggregate Knowledge, as well as business-focused companies such as Solarwinds, Spiceworks, Demandforce, YuMe Networks, and Hyper9.
Headquartered in San Francisco, ngmoco was founded in 2008 by games industry veterans committed to the new mobile landscape opened up by Apple’s iPhone. ngmoco creates and publishes games built specifically for the iPhone made in collaboration with the best and brightest gamemakers in the world. The company’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Maples Investments.
Source: ngmoco
[Attribution: MacNN. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Sir Gill Bates” for the heads up.]
How about changing that name, ngmoco for starters.
I thought Neil Young didn’t like Apple, now he’s developing games for iPhone?
I hope he remembers that iPod users don’t need him around anyhow.
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Yeah, isn’t moco Spanish for booger?
What does that headline mean? Is there a verb in there somewhere? It makes me dizzy.
Neil Young is a flip flopper.
Sounds like a lot of talk, and not much substance so far.
It’s one thing to say you’re going to create category-defining, revolutionary games for the iPhone. It’s another thing to actually do it.
Good at least they will get money for something… How about investors judgement on a game, sorry vaporware
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It sounds like a DOA idea no?
@Lee
Looks like MDN “verbisized” the word iFund: “iFunds”
I agree is the name. Sounds distasteful. But it is hard to believe that KPC is funding unless they’ve demonstrated, internally at least, that they’ve got some special things in the pipeline.
So far, only 3 companies got funding from this so-called 100M$ iFund… Still lots of dough left!
… or ‘verbalized’ …
How on this earth do you pronounce Ngmoco???
Is the Ng silent as in ping? or grating as in ingrate?
Do you emphasise the mo? or maybe it is mo as in moo!
Is oco oko? or is it oso???
How? please tell me how???
KPCB wouldn’t give me a damn dime. “Contact us again when you have a working app” they said. Don’t they know I need a few million to get myself pumped up? A million dollars can buy a lot of kilos. I’d pull a Sly Stone and stay up for 2 weeks working on it.