“Sanrio Digital is very excited to partner with Aeria Games, who will be our online publisher and operator for Hello Kitty Online in North America. With Aeria Games’ leadership position in the free-to-play casual MMO sector and Hello Kitty brand awareness among the underserved female gaming audience, Hello Kitty Online will grow into a leading social gaming destination for teens and female adults,” said Robert Ferrari, Vice President of Publishing & Business Development of Sanrio Digital.

“Aeria Games is honored to partner with Sanrio Digital to introduce Hello Kitty Online to the North American audience. Given the global, well-loved brand and the advanced game design, we believe that Hello Kitty Online will propel the casual free-to-play MMO industry into the mainstream,” said JT Nguyen, Chief Marketing Officer of Aeria Games.

For more information about Hello Kitty Online, please click here.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jasper Design Automation, leading EDA provider of design, verification, and reuse solutions leveraging formal technologies, today announced it has raised $7 million in Series D financing. The investment round was led by new investor, ZenShin Capital of Menlo Park. Joining the financing were existing investors: Accel Partners, Cambrian Ventures, Foundation Capital, InnovationsKapital, and Northzone Ventures. The funds will provide working capital to support Jasper’s self-sufficient operations and continued market and product expansion.

“Customers deploy Jasper’s design and verification solutions to mitigate project risks, reduce labor costs, and shorten schedules,” said Kathryn Kranen, president and CEO of Jasper Design Automation. “By leveraging the power and flexibility of formal technologies to solve customers’ specific design and verification challenges, Jasper is leading a new EDA domain with enormous growth potential. This new funding will drive further market and product expansion.”

“EDA customers are scrutinizing every expenditure, yet Jasper achieved a remarkable 100% renewal rate and greater than 100% growth in 2008,” said Takeshi Mori, managing partner and co-founder of ZenShin Capital. “We see Jasper delivering both technological and business breakthroughs in a strategic growth area for electronic design automation.”

About ZenShin Capital

ZenShin Capital, based in Menlo Park, California, provides early to expansion stage venture capital for information technology companies with a strong market potential in Japan. ZenShin Capital provides deep experience and an extensive network in Japan that create significant opportunities for its portfolio companies. Unlike most other investors with Japan expertise, ZenShin Capital is a neutral value-add investor that thinks and acts from the portfolio company's perspective.

About Jasper Design Automation

Jasper is privately-held, industry-leading EDA software and services company providing design, verification, and reuse solutions that leverage the company’s state-of-the-art formal technologies. The company’s products and services utilize advanced formal analysis and Behavioral Indexing™ technologies for the global electronics market, enabling high ROI design, verification and reuse. Current customers include worldwide leaders in semiconductors, networking, wireless, and consumer electronics. Jasper is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has offices and distributors located in North America, South America, Europe, and Japan. To reduce design, verification and reuse costs and business risks, increase design, verification and reuse productivity and speed time to market, visit Jasper online at http://jasper-da.com.

Jasper Design Automation, the Jasper Design Automation logo, ActiveDesign, Behavioral Indexing, and JasperGold are trademarks or registered trademarks of Jasper Design Automation, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective companies.