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In their own words: Jim Crowley, CEO, Turbine Inc.
Conduit Labs Inc., a Cambridge-based social gaming startup, is raising $3 million in new funding, according to documents filed with the federal government. Previous investors Charles River Ventures of Waltham and Westwood’s Prism VentureWorks participated in this new round, according to Conduit founder, president and CEO Nabeel Hyatt.
In August of 2007, Conduit took in $5.5 million in its Series A round of funding from Charles River Ventures and Prism, the former firm of Hyatt.
Hyatt, who began the company as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Prism, was previously vice president of strategic alliances at MIT Media Lab spin-off Ambient Devices Inc. in Cambridge.
Conduit is developing Loudcrowd, a music community with mini-games that is currently in beta stage. Hyatt has said the game’s revenue model will be based on micro-transactions, where players pay small amounts for in-game accessories and upgrades. “Really, this is a new away to experience music,” Hyatt said. “There hasn’t been a new way to experience music since basically music videos and MTV.”
Hyatt said the social gaming space has huge potential. “From a revenue perspective, this is probably the fastest-growing consumer market since probably Amazon and eBay in the early ’90s,” he said.
Gaming is not a new sector for Hyatt. He co-founded Chicago-based One World by Night in the 1990s, an international network for live-action role-playing gamers.
Conduit has grown to 17 employees since it was founded, and Hyatt says there may be one more round of funding in a year to 18 months or so, but this latest round could also bring the company to profitability.
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