Second Life Developers Close Financing Round

Representatives from developers Linden Lab, creators of the massively multiplayer online (MMO) world Second Life, have announced that the company has closed a financing round of $8,000,000. Benchmark Capital was the lead contributor, followed by Omidyar Network – a new company led by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Existing investors, including Lotus Development founder Mitch Kapor, also participated in the round. At the same time it has been announced that Benchmark Capital partner J. William Gurley will be joining Linden Lab’s board of directors. He will join Mitch Kapor and Jed Smith, managing partner of Catamount Ventures, on the Linden Lab Board of Directors. Linden Lab is the latest in a series of MMO developers to close new venture capital deals recently, with Perpetual Entertainment (owners of the online Star Trek license) and Turbine Entertainment (makers of Asheron’s Call and D&D Online) both securing significant cash injections. MMO and virtual world developers have increasingly been able to attract VC funding in this area because of the longer shelf life of their products and recurring subscription costs, compared to the hit-driven, rollercoaster boxed game market.