Pikum, a UK-based online social gaming start-up, has secured a £2.6m investment from Virgin USA. Pikum is in stealth mode, building a platform for a new kind of betting game created and played between friends online. Competitors are likely to include Party Gaming, 888, Betfair and Tradesports. Users can choose to play for fun or money. Pikum is the brainchild of 28-year old American entrepreneur, Sean Glass, who previously co-founded higher education-focused online financial services company Higher One. Unusually – when we are moved used to reading about startups moving to the US – he has moved to the UK to launch Pikum. The funding round included participation from early stage US-based venture fund, First Round Capital, who also led Pikum’s seed financing in March 2007.
i’m still a big fan of paidgameplayer.com. they def have some cool games in the cusual gaming space. i wonder if the two can partner up.
I guess the had to balance up access with capital with fear of being banged up for the rest of their lives!
I’m looking forward to see what they come up with. Americans coming to the UK with online betting products has an interesting history. Flutter (founded by three Americans) launched in 2000 with a very innovative product but then had to change tack and were ultimately acquired by Betfair. Flipem (backed by Nicholas Negroponte!) launched in or around 2003 with another innovative but slightly daft send a bet to a friend as a present idea. Not sure where it is now…
@Nigel – thanks for your thoughts. Keeping Flutter in mind is important. Betfair really hit the right product with the right market. Also – although we’ve spent awhile in the US, I’m actually South African and Johannes is Austrian… we really only have 2 American born people in the company out of the full team. So we’re not really American’s coming to the UK with an online betting product, we’re more an international group (including brits). If you’re interested apply to get a spot in our private beta at http://www.pikum.com (coming later this spring).