Akoha Gets $1.9M from Angels for Social Game

Akoha, a new development team, announced today that it had brought in $1.9 million from angel investors to help it develop its new "social game inspired by elements of social entrepreneurship, massively multiplayer and reality-based games." Founded by Austin Hill and Alex Eberts, former founders of Zero-Knowledge Systems (now Radialpoint), Akoha is staying fairly quiet about its project until its release in Fall 2008. On the company's blog, though, the inspiration for Akoha is attributed to TED and "discussions about the power of online communities and the changing nature of play."

There's also discussion about sharing media, combining function and fun to improve the world, and reputation systems like Whuffie (from Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom). I don't want to put themes on their world already, but it seems like it could be neat take on some of the ideas behind PMOG with a more explicit aim at offline effects.

“Games have an enormous and largely untapped potential for meaningful social impact," Alan Gershenfeld, managing partner of E-Line Ventures and director of Games for Change, said in a statement. "Based on my experience, I believe Akoha’s approach and design will help them become one of the pioneers."

Investors participating in this round include,

• David Chamandy, co-founder, Lavalife;
• John & Blake Bromley, Benefic Group.;
• Jean-Sebastien Cournoyer, entrepreneur-in-residence, Vantage Point Venture Partners;
• Ron Dembo, founder, Zerofootprint.net and Algorithmics;
• Jake Eberts, film producer;
• Alan Gershenfeld, managing partner, E-Line Ventures, director at Games for Change;
• John Meeks, managing partner, TA Associates Private Equity, London;
• Reg Weiser, founder, Positron;
• Jonathan Wener, Chairman & Founder, Canderel Group;
• Robert Montgomery, founder, Achilles Media;
• Chris Emergui, founder and president, BAM Strategy;
• and the team at Montreal StartUp, an angel investment fund with 20 Montreal-based investors and technology entrepreneurs. Akoha co-founder Austin Hill is board member and partner with Montreal Startup.

“We’re delighted that our investors share our belief in this opportunity to bring fresh ideas to the gaming world," said Austin Hill, CEO of Akoha. "This investment and the support of our incredible angels has allowed us to do some innovative product development and will support the company while we launch and build our community of players into 2009."

Comments

[Taylor]

Great news for a Canuck startup.

[Jason]

Akoha totally ripped off the look of cambrianhouse.com