DeNA, a Japan-based mobile social gaming company, will cornerstone a $33m corporate venturing fund just as media conglomerate SoftBank Corporation backs its gaming peer Zynga.
DeNA said it would commit $27.5m to the Incubate Fund No. 1, with the remainder from private investors, according to news reports.
On news website TechCrunch, DeNA said the main objective of the fund was to find and invest in companies that merge social media with game development and it would invest at the seed level or later stages.
DeNA will also invest in game developers that can be included in their mobile gaming platform, Mobage-Town, which has a strategic partnership with Yahoo Japan.
DeNA already owns 20% of US-based gaming company Aurora Feint but the fund commitment comes on the back of strong financial results.
DeNA posted revenues of $205m for the final three months of last year, which was an 81% increase on the fourth quarter of 2008, and annual revenues of $510m, up 28% from the previous year.
US-based Zynga is expected to earn about $600m this year, according to social gaming websites, and gained nearly $150m from SoftBank earlier this month.