Plug and Play Singapore Gives Some Very Real Cash to Virtual Currency Traders First Meta

Silicon Valley startup accelerator Plug and Play Tech Center has given growth capital to the Singapore-based virtual currency exchange service First Meta. Together with backing from Singapore’s NRF, the Plug and Play funding is worth SG$588,000 (US$468,000) to First Meta.

Avid online gamers might know that First Meta was the first provider of ATMs and credit cards inside Second Life, that vast virtual world which was in the news for a few months before being largely forgotten about. Still, the Singaporean company is active across a number of games and platforms, providing virtual goods as well as the Forex-like trading of virtual currencies. It’s a huge business, especially in Asia.

First Meta CEO, Autumn Radtke, said in an announcement today that the company already has stable revenue and that the funding will be used to develop the next generation of virtual goods and move onto new platforms. She added:

We believe as gaming becomes more mainstream so will secondary trading. We’re here to help the new generation of game companies and currency issuers participate in revenue and avoid the black market fraud problems associated with unsanctioned trading.

Plug and Play arrived in Singapore in 2010. The director of Plug and Play Singapore, Jupe Tan, said that First Meta is a leader in “a fast growing and exciting industry” and hinted that it wanted to help the virtual goods company succeed on the global stage.

Earlier this month, Singapore’s NRF announced a second batch of incubators added to its Technology Incubation Scheme to co-fund startups. Plug and Play Singapore was in this from the beginning as one of the first-wave of approved incubators. Today’s funding is also a part of this TIS initiative.

See the full announcement on the Plug and Play site, or check out First Meta.

[Post updated 2pm SG/BJ time: Amended my mistaken dates in the fifth paragraph]