When Alamofire Inc. closed an $8.4 million Series B round of financing earlier this month, the size of the funding was reasonably impressive — especially during a global recession.

More importantly, the deal marked a departure among Austin investments in that Alamofire’s dominant product, called Gowalla, is a riskier consumer-based service rather than yet another enterprise-based business.

Gowalla, as the company is now being renamed, is a location-based service, meaning it enables cell phone users to send messages to other members about where they are and what they’re doing using global positioning system.

It’s a riskier investment because it’s based on a game, and converting players to profits is something few have done.