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众多风险投资公司押宝社交游戏厂商zynga获得丰厚的回报

发布时间:2010-09-10 11:19:43 Tags:,,

前文我们刚刚爆料了zynga前员工在挖苦zynga只模仿不创新的糗事,但是事实上据华尔街日报的消息,这些并不阻碍投资者们对投资zynga的热情。

Foundry Group和Avalon Ventures是zynga的首轮投资商,他们早在2008年初期就对zynga进行了投资,并在账面上获得了丰厚的回报。他们是从社交游戏的早期投资中获得了不俗的利润。截止到6月底,Avalon的投资回报率是50倍。

wsj zynga

wsj zynga

两年之后,俄罗斯的互联网投资巨头DST已经对zynga估值高达30亿美元。DST的投资让Avalon的早期投入变得更具价值。随着日本软银1亿5000万美元的投资,zynga的估值已经水涨船高,变为更惊人的45亿美元。

Andreessen Horowitz、Institutional Venture Partners和Union Square Ventures也是zynga的主要投资者。

Avalon Ventures合伙人Kevin Kinsella表示zynga的成功并非只是像中彩票那样是侥幸的。

很快可能这些投资者就将从对zynga的投资中获得套现机会,今年八月,zynga聘任了新的首席财务官David Wehner,这可能是为公司的公开上市做准备。

对于zynga的表现,Kinsella表示尽管zynga不是太阳系唯一的行星,但它却是最大的一颗(木星)。

Raising a venture-capital fund these days is no easy feat. But a small number of firms appear to have the wind at their backs, and that wind may have a name: Zynga Game Network Inc.

Foundry Group and Avalon Ventures, both of which invested in one of Zynga’s first rounds of financing back in early 2008, each have plenty of interest in their latest fund offerings, in part because of the performance boost they have gotten from that deal–even if much of it is on paper.

Avalon, for example, is expected to wrap up its ninth fund, ahead of a $150 million target sometime later this year. Meanwhile, Foundry Group has already collected at least $225 million in commitments for its second venture fund, according to investors.

Both firms benefited from investing early on in the social-gaming company. As of June 30, 2010, Avalon was carrying its investment in Zynga at around 50 times its cost, according to people familiar with the situation. Avalon invested in the company when its dollar valuation was in the single-digit millions. Two years later, an investment in the company by Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies Ltd. reportedly valued it at as much as $3 billion. One limited partner in Avalon noted that DST’s investment gave it comfort to invest in Avalon’s Fund IX because it put some validity behind Zynga. The valuation of the company increased even more since DST’s investment earlier this year, to about $4.5 billion, when Japanese technology conglomerate Softbank Corp. (9984.TO) invested $150 million in Zynga this summer, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Because both firms invested in the company out of relatively modest-sized funds, the deal has also appeared to have affected fund level returns. Foundry, for example, was generating a nearly 64% internal rate of return for its $225 million debut fund that it raised around five years ago, according to performance data released by the University of Texas Investment Management Co.

Other investors in Zynga may have gotten a boost from the deal or could get one. Andreessen Horowitz, Institutional Venture Partners, and Union Square Ventures are also among the company’s backers. Andreessen Horowitz is out marketing its second fund, according to two investors. IVP, which invested in Zynga in 2008 and 2009, wrapped up its 13th fund at its $750 million hard cap. However, limited partners in that fund also point to a number of other IVP deals that appear just as promising, including social networking company Twitter Inc., which received an investment from T. Rowe Price Group Inc. (TROW) that valued the company at around $1 billion.

Of course, these firms have yet to fully realize their investments in Zynga, and it remains to be seen whether the company will live up to expectations. Recently, the company was sued by rival start up Digital Chocolate Inc. over “Mafia Wars,” one of Zynga’s more popular games.

Limited partners in either Foundry Group’s or Avalon’s newest offerings also point to factors beyond Zynga that helped to win them over, including other promising portfolio companies and the skill sets of the partners at the respective firms.

“Zynga is not just a fluke or a lottery ticket, though,” said Kevin Kinsella, a managing member at Avalon Ventures, noting that it lies in the mainstream of what Avalon does, which is to invest based on relationships with entrepreneurs and in early-stage companies.

Zynga has made up the bulk of the performance in Avalon’s Fund VIII thus far, said the Avalon LP, noting that most of the companies in the vehicle are still early in their life cycle. Most of the companies in Fund VIII have been valued at around cost, although there have been some significant write-ups apart from the Zynga investment. Avalon portfolio company Simulmedia Inc., for example, was valued at three times cost as of June 30.

The company’s backers may soon find out whether Zynga can turn its lofty valuations into cash distributions. All signs point to Zynga positioning itself for an initial public offering. In August, the company hired David Wehner as its new chief financial officer. It is also upgrading its level of public accounting, said one person familiar with the situation.

“Zynga is not the only planet in our solar system but it is certainly our Jupiter,” said Kinsella. (source:wsj)


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