Trip Hawkins' Digital Chocolate secures additional funding
Mobile games company Digital Chocolate, founded by former 3DO boss Trip Hawkins, has secured around $13 million to fund development and expansion, according to a filing with the American SEC.
Digital Chocolate, the wireless gaming company founded by former Electronic Arts and 3DO man Trip Hawkins, has raised additional cash to fund its development and continued expansion, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission in the USA.
According to the filing, the company issued shares of Series B convertible preferred stock to 23 investors in July, earning the company around $13 million, including $1 million from a particular, unnamed Chinese investor.
The company had previously raised around $8.4 million through a similar stock issue in December 2003, when external investors including Bob Pittman, formerly an executive at MTV and America Online, were issued Series A preferred stock.
Earlier this year, the company acquired Finnish mobile games developer Sumea. Based in Helsinki, Sumea has worked on games including mobile versions of Activision's Pitfall: The Lost Expedition, and distributed games on a number of European and US mobile networks.
Digital Chocolate itself was founded in late 2003, when Hawkins announced the venture at the CTIA mobile trade show in Las Vegas. At the time he said he expected DC to "do some interesting strategic partnering", and that the mobile sector really interested him. "There are a lot of killer apps that have yet to be invented," he told journalists.
Hawkins' previous ventures included Electronic Arts, which he founded in 1982, before leaving to start up the ill-fated 3DO, which filed for bankruptcy protection in May 2003. In the subsequent carve-up, Hawkins acquired the rights to properties including Johnny Moseley Mad Trix and the company's various Internet patents.