Tribal Nova, a developer and operator of parent friendly virtual worlds and educational games for 3-12 year olds, has closed $2.5 million in growth financing from iNovia Capital and ID Capital.    

Montreal-based Tribal Nova, is partnered with several well known media companies including PBS, CBC and France-based Bayard Jeunesse.  

A representative from iNovia Capital says, “Children are consuming media and entertainment in new ways these days, with a significant amount of time and attention spent on the internet. Media companies recognize that fact and are searching for different ways to engage their existing audiences."

Some of Tribal Nova’s games involve social gaming elements which allow children to chat and IM with each other.

With this possibly being a safety issue for parents, I looked into some of these concerns.  One game by Trival Nova, KidStudio, only allows children to communicate with other players if the their parents activate that feature.  Children aged 3-6 are not allowed access to the community based on the rules of the site.  Also, KidStudio only lets children build sentences using words from the pre-approved KidStudio dictionary.  To add, the site does not contain any links to other sites across the web.   Although this is great, anybody can sign up for the site by accepting KidStudio’s terms and conditions and attesting they are over 18 years of age.  

With a firm standing that Tribal Nova is quickly becoming a leader in this new media field for children, the company plans to use this round of funding for expansion into new international markets and also to support its virtual world, KidStudio.