DeNA Sets Up $27.5M Social Gaming Fund

Tokyo-based mobile social network operator DeNA and a number of other private Japan-based backers have set up a $27.5 million fund dedicated to investing in social game companies. The Incubate Fund No. 1 Limited Partnership seeks to find and invest in social gaming projects or startups that are at the seed level or higher stages, according to a report from VentureBeat. DeNA, which has an 83.3 percent stake in the fund, also plans to back game developers that can work on Mobage-Town (or MobaMingle, as its known in the West), its mobile gaming platform. While not so popular yet in North America, Mobage-Town has more than 18 million registered members in Japan. DeNA is working to expand its international reach, developing games for Facebook, preparing to launch a social gaming platform in several English-speaking countries, and building on MiniNation, its recently launched mini-games social network app released for iPhone. DeNA also announced a business partnership with Yahoo! Japan two months ago to create and operate a PC-based social gaming platform called Yahoo! Mobage, which will combine with Mobage-Town so users can play games and take advantage of other services across both platforms.