VentureBeat

Mpowerplayer, a startup that helps people buy mobile games, has raised $2.5 million in a first round of funding.

The funding announcement comes only a month after Mpowerplayer “graduated” from the LaunchBox Digital incubation program. But unlike most of the other Launchbox startups, Mpowerplayer had already started to establish itself — when I spoke to chief executive Michael Powers at the demo day in August, he said the company had already served 15 million mobile game demos.

Powers’ key idea was to find a new way to connect people, especially casual gamers, with mobile games. Searching for games on your mobile device, especially if it’s not a fancy smartphone, can be pain, Powers argued, whereas it’s easier for people to browse through games on their computers. If you find a game you’re interested in, Mpowerplayer then lets you try out a 5-minute demo on a mobile phone emulator. The Reston, Va.-based company also recently released an application for Facebook, and has plans for similar apps on other social networks.

By targeting people on their PCs, Mpowerplayer has the potential to reach a huge untapped audience for mobile games. To be honest, however, I’m still scratching my head about whether Mpowerplayer’s emulator-on-a-PC approach makes sense as a service people will use again and again — at some point, isn’t it easier to just play game demos (assuming they’re available) on your phone?

The funding comes from New Atlantic Ventures, the Center for Innovative Technology GAP Fund and LaunchBox Digital.

LaunchBox Digital, an incubator/investment firm based in Washington, D.C., just announced the lineup of its first “class” of startups. After working with LaunchBox for three months, the companies are giving their East Coast demos today, and will be at the Palo Alto, Calif. offices of Cooley Goodard Kronish tomorrow.

LaunchBox was cofounded by former AOL chief technology officer John McKinley, Julius Genachowski of IAC and Away.com founder Sean Greene. The firm sounds similar to Y Combinator; in exchange for grooming startups and investing between $25,000 and $40,000, LaunchBox gets between 6 percent and 8 percent in equity.

I’ll have more to say about the startups after the demo day tomorrow, but for now here’s a quick roundup. You can also check out LaunchBox’s list and descriptions.

BuzzHubb — A college social networking tool that lets users create and share messages and content via groups called “Hubbs.”

Heekya — A site for building and sharing multimedia “stories.” (VentureBeat contributor David Adewumi is one of the cofounders.)

JamLegend — A music gaming site that sounds like Guitar Hero but is free and playable on a number of devices, including your laptop.

Koofer — A site for college students for share teacher feedback, study guides, past exams, etc.

Mpowerplayer — Provides a way for users to sample and purchase mobile games.

MyGameMug — A gaming social network that wants to categorize and connect gamers.

Razume — A job site that helps 21- to 35-year-old job seekers create a resume, post it and prepare for interviews.

ShareMeme — A service that helps you share messages with different groups of friends and improves as you use it.

Zadby – An online marketplace for advertisers to connect with independent web video producers.