paidContent.org - Teen-Friendly Virtual Chat Service IMVU Nabs $10 Million Fourth Round

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Tameka Kee

paidContent.org
Thursday, January 22, 2009; 5:07 PM

Virtual chat room service IMVU has raised $10 million in a fourth round of funding. Best Buy Capital led the round; previous investors Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital and Bridgescale Partners also participated, bringing Palo Alto, Calif.-based IMVU's total raise to $30 million.

Launched in 2004, the company's mostly teen registered user base has topped 30 million; CEO Cary Rosenzweig told VentureBeat IMVU generates more than $1 million in revenue each month. The bulk of that revenue comes from virtual goods sales: there are more than 2 million member-created items in IMVU's virtual marketplace, including clothing, room decorations and music tracks. Rosenzweig also said the company should be profitable this year.

This news caps off a number of virtual-world related deals this month: Second Life developer Linden Lab just acquired two virtual goods trading sites, Donnerwood Media gobbled up mobile avatar service Pulse Entertainment, and there was a small investment in avatar-based profile service mEgo. Release.

IMVU Gets $9 Million Funding