by Surfdaddy Orca

HiPiHi

HiPiHi, the subject of this month’s feature article, was founded in October 2005 in Zhongkuanchun, Beijing. The primary founders are CEO Xu Hui and Rao XueWei. Initial investments were made by Institutional Angel GCIG in 2006. Alpha testing began in December 2006, and beta testing started in March 2007. Chinese is the main language on the site and virtual world, although an English translation is in progress. There are two main products: HiPiHi World and HiPiHi Home. NGI Group is the lead investor in HiPiHi’s current funding round, estimated at between $7 and $10 million dollars.

Xu Hui was honored as one of the “Top Ten China Internet Heroes” in 1999 prior to founding HiPiHi. Some commentators have suggested that HiPiHi may have “more legs” than its USA counterparts. MMORPG culture is deeply embedded among Chinese netizens, and many players are very used to “repatriating” currency earned in the in-game economy to real life.

Novamente LLC

Novamente LLC is a privately held AI software company aimed at creating a powerful Artificial General Intelligence system and then leveraging this system for the creation of revolutionary software applications. Novamente supplies software products and services to power intelligent virtual agents for computer games and simulations. Novamente LLC donates one percent of its common stock to the Methuselah Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to accelerating the development of foreseeable, science-based therapies to combat aging.

Dr. Ben Goertzel is founder, CEO, and chief science officer of Novamente LLC. He also serves as the Director of Research at the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

Bruce Klein, creator of the online social network, Immortality Institute, is President and CFO.

Novamente LLC and Electric Sheep Company have started a collaboration on some projects applying AI to virtual worlds. The Electric Sheep Company is working closely with Novamente to develop autonomous agents with advanced adaptive and learning capabilities for virtual worlds and massively multi-player online games. Specific product launch announcements are likely to occur in early 2008.

IMVU, Inc.

IMVU, Inc. is a Palo Alto, California-based startup founded by Will Harvey, a video game developer and founder of There.com.

It is currently in beta testing with ore than one million customers worldwide. The primary focus of IMVU is personalized 3D avatars and virtual rooms for chatting. The secondary focus is developing content that can be purchased by other members for use in personalized avatars and home pages. IMVU raised $9 million in Series B funding in 2006, a deal reportedly co-lead by Allegis Capital and Menlo Ventures and another million from Atlanta-based angel investors, the Seraph Group.

The service has been beta for several years, and it is generating a rapidly growing revenue stream from the sale of virtual currency. IMVU has top tier venture investors and a talented team with deep experience in games and virtual worlds.

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