PapayaMobile raises $18M for Android network

Mobile social gaming networks might be this year's twist on the always-hot social gaming startup

Android gaming network PapayaMobile announced Wednesday that it has raised $18 million in Series B funding led by Keytone Ventures and DCM. The latter, a venture capital firm with main offices in Silicon Valley, Beijing and Tokyo, led PapayaMobile’s $4 million Series A in June 2010.

In the same month as that Series A round, PapayaMobile opened its social gaming network, which has since experienced over 375 percent in growth in its user base, which now numbers over 15 million.

“Android growth in China over the next 2 years will be staggering,” said Joe Zhou, founder and managing partner of Keytone Ventures, in a prepared statement. “Couple this growth with the monetization potential of mobile games in China and we believe PapayaMobile is well positioned to be the leader in social gaming platforms for the largest mobile market in the world.”

Of course, they are far from the only ones working toward becoming the social gaming platform to rule them all.

DeNA and ngmoco have been hard at work since at least the fall on building their Mobage-town, a Japanese-born mobile social gaming network with sights set on the globe. And just last week, GREE shelled out $104 million to own all shares in OpenFeint, a social gaming developer for Android and iOS. The purchase marked a major first step in GREE’s plans to build a global mobile social gaming platform.

Weirdly enough, GREE just last week was listed as a supporting investor in DCM’s $100 million A-Fund, designed specifically for Android-based developers and startups. If part of today’s round came from that fund, as indicated by DCM’s participation, then GREE might be mixed up in a couple social gaming platforms. Not that that’s a giant problem.

We’re reached out to PapayaMobile to confirm that today’s funding was drawn from the A-Fund, but have not yet received reply.

PapayaMobile will use the new funding to expand its developer ecosystem in the U.S. and Europe, while adding more products to its network.