Insider investors have re-upped in
PlaySpan Inc., a Silicon Valley startup that has developed a platform through which online game publishers can sell virtual goods. Four institutional investors have joined in a $16.8 million Series B round of funding, which follows a $6.5 million first round by 14 months. Contributing to the round were Easton Capital Group of New York, Menlo Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., Novel TMT Ventures of Hong Kong and STIC International of Seoul.
Memorably
hatched by a fifth-grader and helmed by his father, PlaySpan created a platform that offered virtual goods during online game play, then processed the payment transactions required to buy them. The company is making a move into other forms of social media, and plans to explore opportunities in Europe and Asia. It also acquired transaction processing systems developer PayByCash in July.
-- Paul BonanosSee press release from PlaySpan
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It was great while it lasted. I thought I had a money management problem, but PlaySpan takes the cake. On January 5th PlaySpan started laying people off and contributing to the unemployment mess. It's a sad, sad situation and has brought certain shame to the investors. I could never in good conscience invest in a company whose first step after receiving financing is to put people on the streets in the most desperate of times. PlaySpan took no creative steps to come up with a better solution than mass layoffs. Maybe the 5th grader should have been allowed to come up with a proposal.