AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Portalarium™, an Austin-based publisher and developer of premium quality games for social network and mobile platforms announced today the closing of a second round of bridge financing for the year-and-a-half old company co-founded by legendary game developer, Richard Garriott.
This latest round brings in m8 Capital from the U.K., which invests exclusively in mobile technology, and sees the return of round one seed participant Founders Fund from San Francisco, which focuses on companies run by extraordinary entrepreneurs. The new investment brings the total raised by Portalarium in one year to $3.6 million and also includes an elite group of other prominent angel investors from around the world.
“We are delighted to join Richard Garriott and the Portalarium team in creating the next great gaming company. Richard is one of the giants of the industry. He's a proven entrepreneur and has been a driving force at each of the industry’s major turning points,” said Joseph Kim, general partner of m8 Capital, the London-based venture fund. “Richard’s vision for the future of mobile and social gaming will result in a new generation of ground-breaking games.”
“Founders Fund is extremely pleased to continue its support for Portalarium,” said the venture firm’s Brian Singerman. “Starting new companies and transforming them into extraordinary successes is nothing new to Richard Garriott and his team and we expect Portalarium will continue their exceptional 30 year track record.”
For Portalarium, the funding comes just as the company is gearing up for the launch in coming months of a brand new and unique social media game. Details will be released later this summer.
In the last year, Portalarium has released two games—Port Casino Poker™ and Port Casino Blackjack™, on Facebook® and hi5™ social networks—a couple of evergreen products created to quickly build out the company’s backend technology and start interconnecting a player network across platforms and social networks. Additionally, Port Casino Poker recently launched on Apple’s iPad™ with a planned expansion to the iPhone™ coming soon and Android™ later this year.
“With m8 Capital and Founders Fund, we have the investment resources in place with two very key partners who are prepared to help us grow and scale our company to meet the opportunities found currently in social media and mobile platforms,” said Portalarium CEO Fred Schmidt. “m8 also provides an important international role as we shape our strategy for the European market while Founders Fund has been invaluable in keeping us solidly connected to the social media scene that has coalesced in the Bay Area.
“This round,” said Schmidt, “helps us to continue making the next generation of hit games in Austin, Texas, a hotbed of talent in the technical and creative industries which Richard and his team have helped nurture for the past 30 years and which is now finally gaining global recognition.”
For more information on Portalarium, visit http://www.portalarium.com.
About Portalarium
Portalarium is revolutionizing role-playing games for social media. Formed in September of 2009 in Austin, Texas, Portalarium is developing and publishing premium online games and virtual worlds for popular social networks and mobile platforms. Portalarium games maximize the fun and social play experience between friends, making it is easy to find each other and play together regardless of where you are or what you are playing.
About m8 Capital
m8 Capital invests exclusively in mobile technology. Mobile technology is changing everything we do. Mobile technology is enabling services, products and information to be more pervasive, more relevant, and more convenient. m8 Capital looks to support entrepreneurs and their companies that are positioning themselves to be at the forefront of all things mobile. Previous investments include mobile payment technology company Masabi and German mobile M2M automation firm SCHAD.
About Founders Fund
Founders Fund provides capital to extraordinary businesses run by world-class entrepreneurs. Companies the firm has backed include Facebook (managing partner Peter Thiel was Facebook's first outside backer), Quantcast, SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, RoboteX, Spotify, Yammer, Mint.com, and Slide. The firm, which pursues a founder-friendly investment strategy, is overseen by a team of entrepreneurs and engineers.
For more information visit www.foundersfund.com.
Portalarium, Port Casino Poker and Port Casino Blackjack are trademarks of Portalarium, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.