Children’s media company Disney’s corporate venturing unit has become the first strategic investor in US-based social gaming company Playdom.
Playdom has raised $33m in its series A round extension from Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, US-based venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners and New World Ventures, which invests on behalf of the Pritzker media group.
In November, Playdom raised $43m from New Enterprise Associates, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Rick Thompson, one of the existing angel investors and co-founders of the company, at a $260m valuation, according to news provider TechCrunch.com.
Playdom used its financing to acquire a series of smaller peers, most recently including Three Melons and MetroGames in Argentina, and Offbeat Creations.
Playdom is one of the three biggest game developers on social websites Facebook, MySpace and Hi5 and Apple’s iPhone with more than130 million games installed.
Earlier this month, Zynga, another big three game maker, raised $150m from Japan-based media conglomerate SoftBank, while the third member of the trio, Playfish, was acquired by games company Electronic Arts for up to $400m in November.