Ageia Closes New Round Of Funding

Hardware-accelerated physics chip firm Ageia Technologies, Inc has announced its closing of $27 million in new financing. Led by Granite Global Ventures, financing also came from new investor Hercules Technology Growth Capital along with current investors Apex Venture Partners, BA Venture Partners, CID Ventures, HIG Ventures, and VentureTech Alliance. Ageia previously secured Series A funding for $9.5 million in May 2003, and, according to official statements from earlier this year, had a total of more than $38 million in funding. Therefore, this new round will bring total funding for the firm to around $65 million. According to the company, the capital raised will be used to bring the Ageia flagship PhysX processor to the hardcore PC gaming market and "meet growing market demands for the company’s Ageia PhysX SDK", which can be used in both software-only and hardware-enhanced modes, and has recently been licensed by a number of game companies. “At AGEIA we strive to make physical interactions ubiquitous within games, therefore we must work closely with game developers to create compelling content,” said Manju Hegde, founder and CEO of AGEIA. “The continued support from our strategic capital partners allows us to do that today, while continuing to explore future PhysX technology implementations.” Recent reports have indicated that companies such as BFG and Asus will be launching PhysX-based PPU add-on cards for PC in the near future, with the first cards debuting as soon as this holiday season, and upcoming support from games including Unreal Tournament 2007.