Trade Nations dev picks up new funding, former Xbox exec Ed Fries

Here's another iPhone dev hitting the jackpot. Developer Z2Live is the company behind the hit iPhone social game Trade Nations, and it's picked up what's probably a nice chunk of change in a round of funding from VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Unfortunately, the actual total of funding hasn't been disclosed, but given the popularity of the game and its in-app purchase business model, there's likely six digits or more of money changing hands here.

It's enough to attract some talent, too -- the company has also picked up Ed Fries to join the board of directors. Fries was originally a Microsoft executive who co-founded the Xbox Project and helped put together Microsoft Games Studios. More recently, he's been working on 3D printing at FigurePrints, a company that makes real-life printouts of in-game avatars. This position sounds like it will overlap with that one, but even so, Z2Live will most likely benefit from the experience.