Virtual goods firm PlaySpan has
raised $18 million in a third-round funding from investors led by
Vodafone Ventures and Softbank Bodhi
Fund, and including existing investors Menlo Ventures, Novel TMT Ventures and STIC. The latest financing brings its total raised to date to $42 million.PlaySpan, which enables micropayments for more than 1,000 online games, social networks and video games, said it will use the fresh capital to expand into Europe and Asia and to grow PlaySpan's global publisher and user-base.
The sizeable funding highlights the investor and
M&A frenzy around the social games space, with the recent $70 million round raised by Zynga, Disney's acquisition of Playdom and Google snapping up slide.