Greystripe Gets More Green to Support AdGame Machine

According to a NYT story, ad-supported mobile game network Greystripe (owners of the Gamejump portal) has raised a new $5.5mil round of venture funding from Incubic Venture Capital, Monitor Ventures & Steamboat Ventures (Disney's VC Fund)...bringing their total raise since 2005 to $15.6mil. Greystripe has been a real pioneer in this space and many people in the mobile content space (including myself) believed a couple of years ago that free ad-supported gaming was the future of the business. Unfortunately, the agencies and brands have been moving very cautiously (read: like molasses on a cold day) in the mobile advertising space overall, in spite of evidence of its efficacy. This has made it a bit of a tough road for Greystripe and other more traditional mobile ad networks. As Greystripe continues to push into richer media devices like iPhone (where they have about 50 Apps) and continues to enhance its ad formats the hope is that marketers will come around...which, if all goes as planned, will help Greystripe realize profitability in 2009.