The9Limited announces $100M investment fund

The9 Limited, Chengwei Ventures, ChinaRock Capital Management, China Renaissance K2 Ventures team up

It seems like everyone seems to want a piece of the sweet, sweet game action. Sega is working on mobile Yakuza themed game. Companies such as Rock You and Rocket Ninja are betting that 3D is the way of the gaming future. Even Publishers Clearinghouse is getting into the act, with its December 6th acquisition of Candystand.com.

Chinese online game developer The9 Limited, announced Tuesday that it has established a $100 million investment fund, with a focus on mobile Internet application and platform developers. The fund represents a collaboration between The9 Limited, Chengwei Ventures, ChinaRock Capital Management and China Renaissance K2 Ventures.

No doubt, a good portion of that money will go to developing mobile games, which can bring in some big download numbers and serious revenues.

Revenue made from virtual goods or in-game purchases in mobile games is expected to surpass $11 billion by 2015, according to Juniper Research. This may have a lot to do with the download numbers mobile games receive. For example, one distributor alone, OpenFeint, has managed to garner eight million downloads on the Android platform after only two months.

The release did not include a URL for parties interested in submitting a proposal to review. However, it did say that project proposals can be directly submitted online to the fund investment committee for evaluation.

For those of you not familiar with The9 Limited, which was founded in May of 2000, the company makes several licensed MMORPGs and casual games such as Soul of The Ultimate Nation, EA SPORTS FIFA Online 2, Atlantica and Kingdom Heroes 2 Online.

The9 Limited and its partners are not the only ones interested in funding the world of mobile application startups. In 2008, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins launched a $100 million fund targeted at startups developing iPhone applications. A $40 million super angel fund, raised by Aydin Senkut, is also counting mobile applications as one of its focuses.

(Image from The9 Limited)