ngmoco is flush with cash to develop new games for the iPhone and iPod touch, thanks to a second round of venture-capital funding led by Norwest Venture Partners. The company’s previous financiers, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Maples Investments, are also participating in the $10 million bet on mobile gaming.
As part of the deal, Norwest’s Tim Chang has joined ngmoco’s board of directors. The company said it will use the funding to expand its pipeline of premium games and accelerate development of its publishing and social-gaming platform for Apple’s mobile devices.
Established in 2008, ngmoco is led by the veteran management team of Neil Young, Bob Stevenson, Alan Yu, and Joe Keene. Since its launch last summer, the company has developed and deployed multiple iPhone and iPod touch games, including chart-toppers MazeFinger, Topple, Topple 2, Dr. Awesome, Dropship and Word Fu. With five top-10 products and more than seven million installations, ngmoco is one of the leading game publishers for the iPhone and iPod touch.
“Our mission at ngmoco is to create and publish incredible game experiences in close collaboration with the best and brightest game makers in the world,” said Young, CEO and founder of ngmoco. “The iPhone and iPod touch have revolutionized both the game-play and game-making experience, and we’re committed to building a new type of world-class publisher for this new kind of market.”
ngmoco’s Plans
Games continue to dominate Apple’s App Store — there are currently more than 6,700. Apple has sold more than 30 million iPhones and iPod touch units, keeping pace with Nintendo’s Wii video-game console. Those statistics set the stage for ngmoco to push deeper into the App Store with its popular games. ngmoco’s biggest hit is Rolando, which sells for $9.99.
ngmoco tailors its games to take advantage of the features and functionality of…