Founded in January 2011 by a series of game veterans, including Mike Ouye (Playdom, Crowdstar) and Pete Hawley (Lionhead, SCEE, Criterion), Red Robot Labs is another company demonstrating there's an audience and VC cash in the freemium location-based mobile gaming sector.

Currently only available in the US, its Android Mafia Wars-style game Life is Crime, launched in early September.

Listed as having been downloaded between 10,000 to 50,000 times from the Android Market, its potential is obviously sufficient to persuade investors including Benchmark Capital and Shasta Venture to drop $8.5 million into the company's first proper funding round.

Existing investors Rick Thompson, co-founder of Playdom and Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook and Playdom executive, also participated. The company raised $2 million in its initial seed round.

Who's the Don?

Aside from the experience of the founders, which also includes ex-Crowdstar and EA tech guy John Harris as CTO, the company has its own location-based platform, the R2 Gaming Network, that it intends to use for other products.

As part of the deal, Benchmark Capital's Mitch Lasky, previously JAMDAT CEO, and Robert Coneybeer from Shasta Ventures, will join Red Robot's board.

[source: GamesBeat]