French virtual world company Chapatiz SA, which says it's creating a virtual world for pre-teens, has announced it has raised 350,000 euros ($532,000) in initial investment from Newfund founder François Véron and Business Angel's Dusan Stojanovic and Jean Bégo, who will become shareholders.

The company was founded in 2005 by François Barbut, Stéphan Twarog and Arno Guensherian with the aim of providing multimedia experiences to pre-teen kids, and features the company's proprietary chat application on its free community site. Having received the funding, Chapatiz now stresses its goal to "assert itself as a French reference among its global competitors and other video game giants."