12-year-old founds gaming commerce start-up
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are getting younger and younger. Take Arjun Mehta, a 6th grader who is 12. He started the company, called PlaySpan, last year in his garage, according to VentureBeat.
The company Web site, which features a photo of backpack-sporting, handheld game-playing Mehta, explains that it is the "game industry's first publisher-sponsored in-game commerce network." That means it enables video game publishers to sell products within the games.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has raised $6.5 million from Easton capital, Menlo Ventures, South Korea-based STIC International and Hong Kong-based Novel TMT Ventures.
But just so you don't think Mehta has exchanged the classroom for the boardroom, his father, Karl Mehta, is the chief executive officer.
This isn't the first youngster entrepreneur that VentureBeat has profiled. In May, the site wrote about 13-year-old Anshul Samar, who started Elementeo, which has created a fantasy role-playing game to teach kids chemistry.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor.
