RIOT GAMES RAISES $8 MILLION IN FINANCING
It's time to monetize League of Legends!
Riot Games, a independent developer and publisher of DotA Based Game, League of Legends, has closed a round of financing with the top venture capital firms, Benchmark Capital and FirstMark Capital, and the Chinese online services company Tencent.
Although still nascent in western markets, Riot’s session-based, free-to-play, virtual item-based business model is by far the most popular business model for monetizing games in Asia. While most North American and European publishers continue to prioritize a packaged goods model, Riot has embraced the “games-as-service” model, which it believes is undoubtedly the future of games and a major global opportunity.
This new investment comes as Riot prepares the worldwide launch of its flagship DBG genre game title, League of Legends and could position the company as a leader in next-generation online games.
Riot Games’ first DBG League of Legends is slated to launch in North America on October 3rd 2009. Earlier this year,Riot Games and Tencent announced a distribution partnership for Riot’s “League of Legends” in the Chinese market.
About Riot Games
Riot Games, Inc. is an independent Los Angeles-based video game online video game developer and publisher, funded by venture capital firms Benchmark Capital and Firstmark Capital as well as China’s Tencent. The Company was established in 2006 to develop innovative online next-generation titles for consoles, mobile devices and the PC. Comprised of industry veterans with a shared passion for creating fun, innovative gameplay, the company is currently developing a DotA Based Game title. Riots’s first title, League of Legends tries to revolutionize the DBG genre.
About FirstMark Capital
Based in New York City, FirstMark Capital, has established itself as a venture leader with a strong, international reach over its thirteen year history. FirstMark invests in companies that are creating new markets with innovative technology solutions or disrupting existing markets by applying a novel business model. With nearly $2 billion in capital commitments, FirstMark’s team of investment and operations professionals have decades of real-world experience and leadership in core technology markets, making the firm uniquely qualified to offer industry insight, relationships and the operational expertise to partner with entrepreneurs to build lasting businesses. Select historical investments include: Netgear, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTGR); First Advantage Corp. (NASDAQ: FADV); StubHub, Inc (Acquired by eBay, Inc.); Netegrity, Inc. (Acquired by CA Inc); Flarion, Inc. (Acquired by Qualcomm, Inc.); OutlookSoft Inc. (Acquired by SAP AG); Analex Corp. (Acquired by QinetiQ); Vallent (Acquired by IBM); Syndesis (Acquired by Subex) and Navic (Acquired by Microsoft). For more information, please visit www.firstmarkcap.com.
About Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital, a leading international venture capital firm, was founded in 1995 to help talented entrepreneurs with original ideas build successful technology companies. Benchmark's general partners take a team-oriented, labor-intensive approach to venture investing to deliver a superior level of service to the firm's portfolio companies. Benchmark's portfolio includes high-profile start-ups like Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, Second Life, Tellme, Yelp, and Zillow, and franchise companies such as eBay, Juniper Networks and Red Hat. The firm manages nearly $2.8 billion in committed venture capital. For more information on Benchmark Capital, visit its website at www.benchmark.com.
Seeing Red Hat... Do we expect a League of Legends on Linux soon?
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