Hidden City Games has raised $15 million in VCs funding

What Company Is Offering:
Bella Sara trading cards feature self-esteem-boosting messages and fantastic, imaginative illustrations of horses inspired by both fantasy and nature. The most recent Bella Sara card sets, Northern Lights and Ancient Lights, also feature horses based on Norse, Celtic, Greek and Roman mythology. Each Bella Sara horse-themed trading card can be activated in a magical online world for girls at http://www.bellasara.com, a virtual playground that features horse grooming, jumping, and riding games, plus puzzles, coloring books, interactive storybooks and more.

Inspired by her daughter’s love for horses, Danish social worker Gitte Odder Braendgaard developed Bella Sara to encourage young girls to acknowledge and express their feelings rather than invest too much of their identities in their physical appearence.
How Much They Got From VCs:

Hidden City Games, worldwide distributor of Bella Sara™ trading cards and online world for girls,has raised $15 million in strategic venture capital from Rustic Canyon Partners and Trinity Ventures. The funds will be used to expand the Bella Sara website and for marketing and new product development.
What VCs Says:
With more than 30 million trading cards sold worldwide and more than 1 million registered website users, Bella Sara is the first trading card game to capture the hearts and minds of girls,” said Michael Song, a partner at Rustic Canyon Partners, an $800 million venture fund focused on supporting early-stage technology companies. Mr. Song joins the Hidden City Games board of directors.

“As the online casual games market continues to demonstrate unprecedented growth, Bella Sara has a distinct advantage with 65,000 retail points of sale worldwide, all driving traffic to www.bellasara.com,” said Gus Tai, general partner at Trinity Ventures, which was one of the first institutional investors in Starbucks and which recently sold its portfolio company Photobucket, a web 2.0 darling, to News Corporation. “Peter Adkison understands how to build a global retail footprint, and we are bullish on his plans to leverage Bella Sara’s in-store presence to grow its registered-user base,” continued Mr. Tai, who joins Mr. Song on Hidden City’s board of directors.

Rustic Canyon Partners and Trinity Ventures also funded casual game publisher PlayFirst, Inc. and game publisher/developer Trion World Network.
More at:http://www.bellasara.com/