PlayFab, a Seattle company that provides back-end support for game studios, today announced a $2.5 million seed round from angel investors like PopCap co-founder Jason Kapalka and IronPort co-founder Scott Banister.
We noted the funding back in March, but now PlayFab has officially closed the round and named investors like Larry Bowman of Bowman Capital Management; Arena.net founder Patrick Wyatt; former Kabam COO Chris Carvalho; game exec John Spinale; and Startup Capital Ventures.
The investment from Kapalka is notable since PlayFab CEO James Gwertzman was inspired to start his company after working at PopCap for eight years. It was there he saw PopCap make the transition to a free-to-play monetization model and have to create a robust back-end architecture while also developing the game itself.
With that problem in mind, the 15-year gaming industry vet went out and created PlayFab to provide services like data storage, friend lists, leaderboards, custom game server hosting and in-game purchasing for clients ranging from small independent studios to major publishers.
“I saw firsthand at PopCap just how hard it is to compete as a studio committed to quality in this new world order, Gwertzman said. “I want all those creative teams out there to know that PlayFab’s got their back.”
PlayFab, which spun out from Seattle-based Uber Entertainment earlier this year, today officially began selling its back-end support service to anyone. The company has also signed an exclusive deal with Exit Games to offer more features for customers.
The new investment will be used to hire more employees and continue developing PlayFab’s product.
