Games site lands VC funding, aims to expand brand. (Media & Technology).Zorik Gordon wants to build the next eBay. While he won't be going head to head with the online auction behemoth behemoth (bē`hĭmŏth, bĭhē`–) [Heb.,=plural of beast], large, fanciful primeval monster, like Leviathan, evoking the hippopotamus mentioned in the Book of Job. , he sees its business model as one worth emulating in his three-year-old Internet games site, WorldWinner Inc. WorldWinner.com, where for a fee players play against other users for cash and merchandise prizes, has just landed $9.2 million in its third round of venture financing, led by Benchmark Capital Benchmark Capital is a venture capital firm responsible for the early stage funding of some very successful startups, including eBay. In 1995, the firm invested $6.7 million in eBay, which became worth more than $5 billion by the spring of 1999 and resulted in one of Silicon of Menlo Park Menlo Park. 1 Residential city (1990 pop. 28,040), San Mateo co., W Calif.; inc. 1874. Electronic equipment and aerospace products are manufactured in the city. Menlo College and a Stanford Univ. research institute are there. 2 Uninc. . Benchmark, which has backed an array of technology businesses including eBay, Palm Inc. and RedHat Software, has a 35 percent stake in the company and installed partner Robert Kagle on WorldWinner's board. Gordon, president of the Marina Marina “a piece of virtue.” [Br. Lit.: Pericles] See : Virtuousness del Rey-based company, said the new round of financing brings the amount raised this year to $17.5 million -- and $20 million since its inception in 1999. The money will be used to market the WorldWinner name and round out its technical and management team, he said. Alex Saidakovsky, Daniil Utin and Alex Ganelis developed the idea while students at Brandeis University Brandeis University, at Waltham, Mass.; coeducational; chartered and opened 1948. Although Brandeis was founded by members of the American Jewish community, the university operates as an independent, nonsectarian institution. . Ganelis and Saidakovsky remain on the board. Gordon, who co-founded Jackpot.com prior to joining WorldWinner, wants to attract more visitors directly to the Web site as opposed to distributing the service through portals like Lycos. "Partnerships got us to where we are today, but partners can only do so much for you," he said. WorldWinner's site offers a smorgasbord of games of skill, including solitaire solitaire or patience, any card game that can be played by one person. Solitaire is the American name; in England it is known as patience. There are probably more kinds of solitaire than all other card games together. , word games and mah-jongg. Benchmark contributed $8 million to the third round of financing, with the remaining $1.2 million coming from Zero Stage Capital, HarbourVest Partners and CommonAngels. |
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