# PlayMob receives £500k investment for its in-game fundraising service

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/03/07/playmob-receives-500k-investment-its-ingame-fundraising-service/
- Published: 2012-03-07T12:34:33+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**PlayMob, the social gaming company that enables charities to fundraise through
in-game micropayments, has secured £500,000 in investment from NESTA and venture
capital fund manager Midven plus a number of angel investors.**

The company, which was founded in 2007, created the ‘GiverBoard’ technology. This
lets computer game players fundraise for charity by purchasing virtual items during
a game. These items could be relevant, such as a virtual tractor raising funds for
a charity that works with farming groups, or simple badges or other rewards.

PlayMob ran a Thanksgiving campaign in November 2011 where virtual food hats were
sold, raising over $3,500 to pay for Thanksgiving meals for homeless children and
families in New York.

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In September 2011, players of Parallel Kingdom were able to purchase a special edition
virtual soup can hat for their character. Each purchase helped pay for a meal for
a homeless person via the HELP USA charity. Over $3000 was raised in just two weeks,
feeding hundreds of people.

The investment will be used to increase staff from 8 to 13 people, to improve the
technology, and to develop new sources of income, such as the facility to incorporate
advertising and sponsorship from companies within games to generate even more for
charity partners.

Founder and CEO of PlayMob, Jude Ower, says: ‘We passionately believe that gaming
can have huge social benefits. Our technology gives charities and brands access 
to hundreds of millions of players, during the three billion hours per week spent
playing games.”

Libby Kinsey, Investment Manager at NESTA, said: “PlayMob’s technology represents
an exciting mix of a simple idea, unique and sophisticated technology, social benefits
and commercial potential. We’re delighted to announce our investment to scale up
their operations and deliver some real impact in both the gaming and charity sectors.”

www.playmob.com

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