Pikum, a UK-based online social gaming start-up, has secured a £2.6m investment from Virgin USA. Pikum is in stealth mode, building a platform for a new kind of betting game created and played between friends online. Competitors are likely to include Party Gaming, 888, Betfair and Tradesports. Users can choose to play for fun or money. Pikum is the brainchild of 28-year old American entrepreneur, Sean Glass, who previously co-founded higher education-focused online financial services company Higher One. Unusually – when we are moved used to reading about startups moving to the US – he has moved to the UK to launch Pikum. The funding round included participation from early stage US-based venture fund, First Round Capital, who also led Pikum’s seed financing in March 2007.