Inside Social Games

In Q1 of 2009, $69 million in funding was invested amongst 10 virtual goods companies during Q1, according to Virtual Goods News.

Quarter-over-quarter, the total amount invested in the space has held steady according to the report. The number of companies funded was also in the same range: there were 12 in Q3 and 7 in Q4 2008.

Year-over-year, the numbers weren’t as impressive, at least on the surface. The amount of investment in Q1 of 2008 was approximately $147.7 million. That would make the Q1 2009 number of $69 million look like nearly a 50 percent decrease.

While that seems like a sharp drop, VGN reminds us of the big investment that 9You received last year. The company garnered a whopping $100 million investment round, led by Temasek Holdings, to build a virtual entertainment community.

If you were to discard that investment, the amount of “normal” investments have actually increased, the report estimates. Nonetheless, the precise amount of this increase is unknown, due to unspecified investments.

In addition to the 10 companies who received investments in Q1 2009, there are actually two more that have received undisclosed investments: Ironstar Helsinki and Meez, which Michael “Monty” Widener and Anthem Venture Partners invested in, respectively. Furthermore, there have also been two acquisitions by Linden Labs for an unknown sum: OnRez and Xstreet SL.

The investment figures can be found below (chart):

• IMVU – $10,000,000
• Ironstar Helsink – Undisclosed
• Meez - Undisclosed
• ngmoco – $10,000,000
• Nurien – $10,000,000
• Offerpal Media – $15,000,000
• Ohai – $6,000,000
• OMGPOP – $5,000,000
• OneSeason.com – $3,500,000
• Scrapblog – $4,000,000
• Three Melons – $600,000
• Viximo – $5,000,000