Google Ventures Leads $5M Investment In Virtual Currency Startup Pocket Change

Pocket Change, a startup offering a virtual currency platform for Android games, has raised $5 million in a Series A round of funding.

Creating a currency platform that works across Android games is already pretty ambitious, but the company describes its goals in an even more grandiose way: “Our mission is to build the world’s first universal virtual currency.” PocketChange says that it has already been integrated into more than 100 games, reaching more than 2 million users in total. It also says the integration process only takes one or two hours.

The round was led by Google Ventures, with existing investors First Round Capital, Scott Banister, and Baroda Ventures also participating. Google Ventures partner Joe Kraus will be joining the PocketChange board of directors, which also includes former Myspace CEO Mike Jones.

Pocket Change was founded by CEO Ari Mir (co-founder of in-image ad network GumGum) and CTO Amos Elliston (formerly CTO of Geni and SVP of Engineering at Yammer). The company was originally called Lunch Money, but renamed itself Pocket Change (see what they did there?) last November. It has now raised a total fo $6.4 million.