Multiverse raises $4M for virtual world offering

Multiverse, a Mountain View, Calif. company that provides a tool-kit for develops to build multiplayer online games and virtual worlds and then make money off them if they want, said it has raised $4.175 million in a first round of funding.

The company is co-founded by Bill Turpin, a Web pioneer whose first company helped create the beginnings of what later became JavaScript, and an HTML Web page creator that was built into the early Netscape browser (clarification: Turpin’s Livewire, which Netscape renamed Javascript, became the script for the server side; Brendan Eich was actually responsible for creating Javascript on the client side, based on idea by Andreessen).

You can download its client at Multiverse, and test it out. We did, and it certainly looks state-of-the-art.

The company says more than 10,000 development teams have already signed up to use the Multiverse platform, and over 150 teams have begun building products ranging from fantasy and science fiction MMOGs to educational worlds. It plans to launch a consumer network of games later this year or early next year.

If a developer doesn’t want to charge consumers or run ads in their world, they don’t pay Multiverse anything, though the world does have to be part of the Multiverse Network to be opened to consumers. If a developer wants to use the platform commercially, Multiverse offers them two options: revenue-sharing or up-front payment.

Sterling Stamos Capital Management, a hedge fund, led the round, which included angel investors.

Multiverse had a post-money valuation of $10.5 million, according to VentureWire.

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