Vancouver-based Mingleverse has landed $1.4 million from Yaletown Venture Partners (YVP), angel investors and company co-founder and CEO Ron Stevens.
Mingleverse will use the money to expand marketing programs for its mobile offering and to move forward with integrating into social networking platforms.
The company has a virtual application on which two to 50 people, in virtual versions of themselves or in the guise of avatars, can meet online in a virtual chat room. (See “Mingleverse making 3-D ripples in tele-meeting technology” – issue 1045; November 3-9, 2009.)
“The technology is compelling and the range of applications for Mingleverse seems limited only by the imagination of its growing community of enthusiastic users,” said Mike Satterfield, who is a YVP partner.
Mingleverse, which has users in 196 countries, aims to enhance the way people use social networking. Users are able to have a natural conversation in a 3-D, high-definition voice while sharing media such as pictures, TV or YouTube videos with anyone in their network.
Industry insiders often mention Mingleverse in the same breath as WebEx, Skype or SecondLife because its technology shares characteristics with each of those interactive tools.