[Russia] The Moscow-based social games company Nival Network, part of the Nival Group, has raised $7 million in new funding from DST, 1C Company and Nival Group founder & CEO Sergey Orlovskiy, according to a report (russian) in the Vedomosti newspaper.
DST have invested $4 million for a 12.5% stake, with software vendor 1C (a previous investor) providing an additional $1 million and Nival Group CEO, Sergey Orlovskiy putting in $2 million. As a result, 1C and Orlovskiy now own a 26.56% and 60.94% stake, respectively.
This gives Nival Network a post-money valuation of $32 million.
Formed in September 2008, Nival’s game portfolio includes MMORPG titles like Dragonica; Shaiya: Light and Darkness; Cabal Online; multiplayer racer Level-R; browser-based strategy game Khan Wars 2.0 and music game RockFree. It also runs the online gaming and social networking portal ZZima. The company has game development studios in Moscow and Minsk.
The Russian online game market is reportedly valued at $238 million this year 2009, and MMOGs account for around $210 million, while casual games make up $28 million of that.
