Playdom Raises $43 Million in Series A Funding

Playdom, a leading social gaming company, announced today that it has closed $43 million of financial investments as part of its Series A financing. The investment, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), along with Playdom chairman Rick Thompson, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), will be used to finance strategic acquisitions and expand the company’s pipeline of market-leading games.

“We are focused on growing Playdom into a world-class gaming company. A number of compelling games are in development for 2010, and we’re bullish about our future and the potential to bring people together through social gaming,” said John Pleasants, CEO of Playdom. “Social games appeal to everyone, everywhere. Our players range from ages 13 to 80 and come from more than 150 countries, so the opportunity for growth is tremendous.”

In conjunction with this financing, Playdom has added Scott Sandell, general partner at NEA, to its Board of Directors. Sandell joins Playdom’s existing board members CEO John Pleasants and founders Rick Thompson, Dan Yue and Chris Wang.

“We are thrilled to partner with such an exciting company and strong leadership team,” said Sandell. “We believe social gaming is a transformative industry and Playdom is playing a critical role in shaping its future and the future of online social entertainment.”

Playdom currently runs 13 games on leading social networking platforms including Facebook, MySpace and iPhone. The company is the largest game developer on MySpace and has two of the top five role-playing games on Facebook, including its popular titles Sorority Life and Mobsters 2: Vendetta.

Playdom has over 190 employees in offices in Mountain View and San Francisco, CA, as well as a game studio in Eugene, OR.

About NEA
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a leading venture capital and growth equity firm focused on helping entrepreneurs create and build major new enterprises that use technology to improve the way we live, work and play. Since its founding in 1978, the firm has followed the same core principles: supporting its entrepreneurs, providing an excellent return to its limited partners, and practicing its profession with the highest standards and respect. Through its affiliated funds, NEA focuses on investments at all stages of a company’s development, from seed stage through IPO. With approximately $11 billion in committed capital, NEA’s experienced management team has invested in over 650 companies, of which more than 165 have gone public and more than 255 have been acquired. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.

About Lightspeed Venture Partners
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital firm with over $2 billion of committed capital under management. Lightspeed’s investment professionals and advisors are located in Silicon Valley, China, India and Israel. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed more than 150 companies, many of which have become leaders in their respective markets, including Blue Nile, Brocade, Calista, Ciena, DoubleClick, eHealth, Galileo Technology, Growth Networks, Informatica, Kiva Software, LightLogic, Maker Communications, Metasolv, Openwave, Quantum Effect Devices, Riverbed, Sirocco, Virsa Systems and Waveset. For more information, visit www.lightspeedvp.com.

About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) is a global, multi-stage investment firm that manages more than $2.5 billion in capital. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, Mumbai and Bangalore, India and Herzelia, Israel. NVP makes early to late stage venture and growth equity investments in U.S. and global companies across a wide range of sectors including: information technology, business services, financial services and consumer. NVP has actively partnered with entrepreneurs to build great businesses for more than 48 years and has funded over 450 companies since inception. For more information, please visit www.nvp.com.

About Playdom
Playdom is a leading social gaming company. As communicated in the tagline “Where players rule,” Playdom is committed to delivering the best possible player experience to its more than 28 million monthly active users on Facebook, MySpace, hi5, Tagged and iPhone. Playdom is headquartered in Mountain View, CA. Please visit www.playdom.com for more information

Editor- Michelle Rose