In-Game Advertising: Double Fusion Gets Venture Funding

San Francisco-based in-game advertising company, Double Fusion has raised $26 million in venture capital funding.

The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners and two existing investors ponied up on the round, namely Jerusalem Venture Partners and Accel Partners. Also participating in the round were a number of strategic investors – Time Warner, Hearst Corporation, IDG Ventures Pacific and Sedona Capital (Japan).

Double Fusion sees the rapid growth of in-game advertising as being driven by the huge and ongoing shift of audiences to interactive games from other media, coupled with advertiser concerns about the engagement value of other media. In-game advertising provides advertisers with new forms of advertising in an immersive environment, offering new ways for brands to engage deeply with their most important target audiences.

The funding from this round will be used for aggressively scaling key areas of the business including its media sales, technology, and international operations to maintain its leadership in what analysts project to be one of the fastest growing worldwide media businesses.

Talking about the round, Double Fusion’s CEO, Jonathan Epstein said, “Videogames are providing a new advertising vehicle that not only delivers a highly engaged audience, but fundamentally changes the way consumers are able to interact with brands. Advertising, in turn, creates new business models for game companies that will continue to accelerate the growth of the gaming audience.”

In May, through its MSN division Microsoft acquired Massive Incorporated, another in-game advertising company. The big question is who do the latest investors in Double Fusion see as the ultimate exit acquirer…Google?