You heard that right: Ngmoco, an iPhone game development company, is receiving its second round of funding at $10M. I’m not sure if that’s pre or post money. But I guess it really doesn’t matter, this is quite a bit of money.
This sounds a little overboard to me, but I get the idea. The company has good lineage–such in its founder–former Electronic Arts executive Neil Young–and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as early investors. You know what that means.
It does sound like they are burning through a lot of money though, which is not a good sign. However, on the hand, with a strong network they may be going with the build it fast and sell model. It sure looks like it to me.
If the approach does win it’ll encourage more investments in the iPhone market.
And if Apple ever does come out with a larger iPod Touch like device I’d expect the value of these companies to get even bigger–should it also prove out to be a gaming capable device. (If instead the bigger iPod is more eReader like with a lower performing graphics display, then this won’t pan out. We’ll see.)
What’s interesting to me is to see how well Apple has nourished the ISV market. It’s part of the overall package of care in building an ecosystem of manufacturers, ISVs, and enthusiastic customers. For all the talk about how prices have been too low for iPhone software, I think this has been part of the success. Price point matters. The iPhone has demonstrated this on the positive side. The UMPC showcased how high price can dampen adoption.