Television-based social games platform PlayJam closed its series A funding round yesterday, having raised $5m from investors including Gamestop Digital Ventures, the corporate venturing unit for games retailer Gamestop, and Adobe Ventures, which performs the same function for Adobe, manufacturer of software applications such as Flash and AIR.
Also contributing to the round were venture capital (VC) firm Endeavour Ventures, VC fund London Venture Partners and several unnamed investors PlayJam referred to as ‘game industry luminaries’.
PlayJam was originally formed by UK-based visual media company Static 2358 in 1999 as an interactive digital TV channel before both Static and PlayJam were sold to US-based interactive television firm Open TV for $69m.
Founder Jasper Smith reacquired PlayJam in 2009 and this round represents the first significant outside funding since then. The capital will be used to fund growth, particularly into the US and Asian markets. Additionally, PlayJam will act as a distributor for a wide range of 2D and 3D games using Adobe’s Flash technology.
PlayJam’s gaming platform allows users to access casual social games on their television through their remote control and PlayJam estimates 50% of its customers go on to pay for content.
Chris Petrovic, managing director of GameStop Digital Ventures, said: "The investment in PlayJam is an important step to understanding the potential of the connected TV sector. PlayJam has gained an early lead in the development, distribution and monetisation of games on TV and we look forward to working closely with them to develop the opportunity further."
Emmy Huang, group product manager of gaming at Adobe, added: "There is a growing market for delivering rich, casual and social games to connected TVs [while furthering] the virtual console concept on the largest screens in the home. We are delighted to support PlayJam as they pioneer new Flash-based gaming experiences across TVs using AIR."