PlayFirst is a San Francisco, CA–based publisher of interactive entertainment that publishes games across PC, Mac, iPhone, Facebook and consoles. Its portfolio includes Diner Dash, Wedding Dash, Cooking Dash, Chocolatier and Dream Chronicles. The company completed a $9.2M financing composed of $5.2M in venture capital from existing investors and $4.0M in debt financing. Proceeds will be used to fund growth into the mobile and social games market and to optimize PlayFirst brands for social and mobile platforms. Management said it will seek growth through partnerships and potential acquisitions. The company also expanded its social games team with the hiring of Eric Hartness as VP and GM, plus additional product, engineering and design hires. PlayFirst develops shared casual game experiences around lasting original brands, with titles that emphasize story and character-driven gameplay such as Wedding Dash, Chocolatier, and Dream Chronicles. Wedding Dash has been downloaded 200 million times across PC, Mac, mobile and handheld platforms. The company is pursuing social-networking distribution as a growth channel, signing a deal with RockYou to distribute PlayFirst games (Wedding Dash will be made available to Facebook users). PlayFirst views that distribution as a way to tap the growing popularity of social networks as gaming platforms. Financially, the business has raised capital to support its strategy and product distribution efforts. The studio was founded in 2004 and is based in San Francisco.

Total raised

$26M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series C

Latest activity

Oct 2010