Last week Walden International led a $4 million Series A investment in Shanghai-based Imax Technology, a deal that also included existing investor IDG. Imax runs 5173.com, a
Chinese language auction site where players of multiplayer role-playing games can sell the virtual goods they’ve amassed online, for example, weapons and armor.

“We saw the success of these models in places like Korea and Japan and we began looking for companies like that in China,” said Andrew Kau, managing director at Walden International. Brian Chiang, Walden’s managing director in Shanghai, has joined the board of directors.

Imax already generates revenue by charging fees for each sale and plans to use the new capital to grow.

Another $4 million investment in the online gaming market, for Seoul-based Ndoors – is expected to close in a few weeks, said Kau. Ndoors develops online games for players to
build virtual civilizations and economies, complete with political figures.

Also on the horizon is a $5 million co-investment with Storm Ventures in Com2Us Corp., another Seoul-based company that develops mobile games and has the right to Tetris in
the Korean market. Com2Us already has substantial revenue in Korea but wants to develop games for the Chinese and U.S. market, said Kau.

Walden is one of a number of investors that have recently stepped into the online gaming market. Turbine Inc., a publisher of subscription-based video games that can be played by hundreds of thousands of players simultaneously, raised $30 million in Series B financing in May from Tudor Ventures, Columbia Capital, Highland Capital Partners and Polaris Venture Partners.

Game Trust Inc., a New York City-based firm developing billing and play infrastructure for online games, closed a $10 million Series B round in November, while early this year
NeoCarta Ventures led a $10 million Series C round for Massive Inc., an online video game advertising network.
Many of Walden’s deals are made with an eye on the exploding mobile market in China, Kau said. With China lacking a solid payment infrastructure, the mobile phone has
become a payment form of choice, though currently only for goods like ringtones and images. Combine that with the fact that cell phones outnumber personal computers at a
ratio of 8:1 (the ratio is about 1:1 in the U.S.) and it’s clear the mobile phone will be tightly linked to gaming opportunities.

Even U.S. investments haven’t remained immune to the mobile force. Fastmobile Inc., a company in Rolling Meadows, Ill., that recently raised $12 million in Series B funding
co-led by DCM-Doll Capital Management and Walden International, has signed deals in China and Europe as well as in the U.S. for its IP messaging software for cell phones.
Kau, who was Walden’s partner on the deal, added, “To think that you can grow a startup just in the U.S. market is extremely unlikely these days.”