VoxPop.TV, a San Francisco-based startup that creates embeddable pop culture contextual games for publishers like Entertainment Weekly, E! Online, and Maxim, has raised $1.5 million in Series B funding led by Hearst Interactive Media, with original investor True Ventures participating. VoxPop raised $2 million in Series A funding from True Ventures in 2007.
VoxPop will use the additional funding to drive additional product development of its gaming platform. VoxPop’s games, which are often created specifically for publishers and are ad-supported, are based on opinions and predictions on topics and current events (like the Oscars or the Grammy awards). Games range from an E! Online game on what celebrity wore the best outfit to an awards show to picking brackets for March Madness at NCAA.com.
VoxPop has also turned its pop culture games into free, shareable widgets for anyone to post on a blog, social networking site or website. Users can even create a “game lobby” of sorts by adding multiple games to a page.