Chinese gaming PC startup Ngame closes $10 million series A round

Some say mobile gaming is the future, but make no mistake: PC gaming is alive and well in China. The latest evidence of that? The conclusion of a US$10 million series A funding round for Ngame, a Chinese hardware startup that makes gaming PCs and sells them online. The round, which was led by Fortune Capital, reportedly makes Ngame the first online PC hardware startup to receive VC funding.

Ngame was founded in 2007 with the goal of providing customers with custom PCs that offered a high quality-to-price ratio. The company was nearly destroyed in 2011 when the floods in Thailand caused computer component prices to skyrocket. But Ngame managed to survive, and in 2012 it became the top seller of custom PCs on Taobao. Now, it sells its products via an official branded shop on Tmall.

According to ChinaVenture, Ngame plans to use the US$10 million investment to strengthen its supply chain and improve its customer experience as well as its employees’ quality of life.

Fortune Capital CEO Liu Zhou said that his company chose to invest in Ngame primarily because they believe that as China’s standard of living rises, people’s demands for what their PCs can do will also rise, and Ngame seems poised to grab the high-power-at-low-cost sweet spot that has proved so popular in other markets (like the smartphone market). Liu also said that he invested in the company based on its belief in Ngame’s internet-focused business model and its talented, youthful team (average age: 24).

(Source: ChinaVenture)