Kabam, a Californian developer of massively multiplayer social games formerly known as Watercooler, has raised $30 million in Series C funding in a round led by Redpoint Ventures and Intel Capital, with participation from original investor Canaan Partners (which incubated Kabam in its offices at the seed stage).
The company, which was founded in 2006, says the additional capital will be used to expand its game studios.
In addition, Kabam aims to produce a greater assortment of original and branded social games and explore targeted acquisitions similar to its purchase of WonderHill in October 2010. → Read More
The race is on between sites like Hulu and Joost to bring video content to the web, but as this content becomes more ubiquitous it will be the sites that go beyond basic video streaming that will ultimately be able to differentiate themselves. Watercooler, a development house behind several hundred community-based social network applications, is one company that is positioning itself well for this upcoming face-off. The startup has built up a community of 16 million registered users spanning its TV-centric applications on MySpace, Facebook, and other popular social networks, and has now signed deals with Hulu and Joost that make it one of the first sites on the web to offer content from every major TV network.
Watercooler launched its apps over 18 months ago (long before getting rights to any video content), offering an array of applications that allowed TV fans to interact in an environment focused on their favorite shows. Each application offers discussions, games, and other social content relevant to a specific show (for example, you can find the Addicted To Heroes app here on Facebook). But recently, Watercooler has made strides to take these social communities to the next level. → Read More
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