Gaikai, the cloud gaming platform founded by industry veteran David Perry, took a significant step forward today by securing $30 million in Series C funding, which will be used to help accelerate the rollout of the service's network, which the company has labeled the Gaikai Global Interactive Network. The latest funding round was led by venture capital firm NEA and also saw contributions from Qualcomm, Benchmark Capital, Rustic Canyon and Intel Capital.
Gaikai CEO David Perry commented:
“Our vision is to manage the Gaikai Global Interactive Network, built from the ground up for the cloud. Telecommunications companies were built to deliver audio & data within geographic boundaries. The next generation networks must be able to additionally deliver instant, real time interactive experiences to a connected global audience, both wired and wireless.
"We have all become used to accessing every song ever made, every book ever written, every movie in every genre through cloud-based services. Gaikai is bringing this same functionality to video games and other interactive software. Over the last few years we have quietly designed and assembled a custom high-speed interactive network, purpose built to realize this vision.
"Today’s media consumers are impatient with anything that stands between them and their chosen experiences. We help publishers get rid of friction, reducing clicks, eliminating downloads and delays. Today it is common to have up to 40 clicks and, sometimes, 60 minute downloads before a consumer can even try a great software product. The Gaikai Network enables publishers to deliver a full experience within 30 seconds in any leading web browser, on all operating systems, on all devices, even running inside platforms like Facebook. Many leading companies are already our partners in this vision, including video game publisher Electronic Arts and Walmart, the largest retailer in the world.
"Our business is about enabling our partners to reach their customers more easily. We don’t impose business model constraints on our publisher partners; rather, we operate and manage public and private cloud platforms as a service, on a metered basis. Any company can work with Gaikai to quickly launch their own cloud-based services. We strive to help our partners build better relationships with their customers.”
