Social Gaming Company Kabam Raises $30 Million, Plans Acquisitions

Kabam, a Californian developer of massively multiplayer social games formerly known as Watercooler, has raised $30 million in Series C funding in a round led by Redpoint Ventures and Intel Capital, with participation from original investor Canaan Partners (which incubated Kabam in its offices at the seed stage).

The company, which was founded in 2006, says the additional capital will be used to expand its game studios.

In addition, Kabam aims to produce a greater assortment of original and branded social games and explore targeted acquisitions similar to its purchase of WonderHill in October 2010.

Maha Ibrahim, general partner at early backer Canaan Partners, says the Series C round was “heavily oversubscribed”.

Kabam tries to differentiate from other social game developers by shying away from so-called casual games, putting more focus on games that appeal to a core gamer demographic, says Kevin Chou, CEO of the company.

It attempts to do that by combining the immersive gameplay found in massively multiplayer online strategy and role-playing games with the social interaction capabilities provided by social platforms (as far as I can tell, its games are Facebook only).

The company says it has several new games scheduled for launch in early 2011, with more titles and “strategic initiatives” slated to follow later in the year.

Kabam says it has grown from 20 employees to over 200 in the course of a year, recently opening up studios in San Francisco and China.

The company has raised a total of $39.5 million to date.

(Press release)