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Nurien Software raises $15 million for Asian social networking and gaming service

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 1 min

Nurien Software, a Korean social networking and online gaming company, has raised $15 million in a first round of venture capital from investors in the U.S. and China.

The company lets users create their own avatars and then socialize in a variety of topic areas. Its service has been in development for three years. Investors include Beijing-based Northern Light Venture Capital, Globespan Capital Partners, New Enterprise Associates, and QiMing Venture Partners.

The company is a closed beta in Korea this month. It is launching its service in China and Korea at the end of 2008 and in the U.S. in early 2009. Users can play online games such as MStar, an online dance game; Runway, a fashion show application; and QuizStar, a casual online game. I suppose if I saw those pictures above, I’d throw $15 million into this too.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.