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Social Networking - Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Seoul's Pre-launch Nurien Raises $15M 1st Round For Social Gaming

Seoul, Korea's Nurien Software has raised $15M in Series A funding from Globespan Capital Partners, New Enterprise Associates , Northern Light Venture Capital and QiMing Venture Partners.

Nurien plans to launch in China and Korea at the end of 2008 and in the US in 2009. The firm says it has built a platform with which users can create avatars, 3D space and content. Nurien has build online such an online dance game; Runway, a fashion show application; and a casual online game.

Here's the big idea from Taehoon Kim, co-founder of Nurien Software. “We wanted to create a social virtual world – sort of like a 3D MySpace – where users can create, collect, combine and share legacy media such as music, photos, video as well as 3D objects such as clothing, furniture, pets, cars and more, all in a beautiful 3D environment. We wanted to give users a powerful new vehicle for self-expression that breaks down real world limitations. We at Nurien believe that if people created homepages in the ‘90s to express themselves, and if they have migrated to blogging and using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace today, then the next natural step will be to inhabit fun, virtual worlds with user-created avatars.”

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