Funium & ZIO: More funding for social gaming

Funium, developer of Family Village, and ZIO Studios, with Social Street Soccer, raise millions

Two minor social gaming startups, Funium and ZIO Studios, secured small amounts of cash this morning. Here are the details on both.
 
Funium announced Monday that it has raised an angel investment of $1.2 million from Family Odyssey and FamilyLink. Family Odyssey, which is 50 percent owned by Jim Sorenson, is a game for the PC that melds the virtual gaming experience with the user’s actual family history. FamilyLink, founded by Internet entrepreneur Paul Allen, is a service that enables people to search a database of 3.6 billion names for their ancestors.
 
The first Facebook game to be developed by Funium, Family Village borrows from both Family Odyssey and FamilyLink in that the ultimate purpose of the game is to help people explore their ancestral lines. After creating a personalized avatar in the game, you start building your own village, complete with homes, pets and monuments. Eventually, Funium hopes that you will discover family connections and documents like newspaper articles, census records, maps and other documents related to your family history.

Family Village is still in alpha, and it shows. Don’t expect the perfectly greased up gaming experience that you get from the big guns like Zynga, because this is definitely a much more amateur affair. But then, there’s something endearing about that.

ZIO Studios, a Latin American animation and gaming startup, announced Monday that it has raised $1.3 million, also its first institutional funding round. Responsible for the round was fund manager Promotora through its venture capital arm, which focuses on technology, software and life sciences.

The company says it has been making games, mobile apps and animations in Europe, North America and Asia for years. In the last year, the studio has moved into designing 3D games for social sites.

"We are entering a new phase in how rich media properties are consumed across platforms," said Alejandro Gonzalez, company co-founder and newly appointed CEO. "Social media doesn't mean 'casual audiences only'. Social media means 'casual, core, and everybody else', and ZIO is well positioned to tap into these huge emerging opportunities. It's what's next, and this investment is an unmistakable vote of confidence in our vision.”

One of ZIO’s most recently launched games is Social Street Soccer, a 3D multiplayer sports game in which users create their own avatars, form teams and play with friends in real-time. Social Street Soccer launched in mid-December and currently has around 438 monthly active users.