April 5, 2012, Updated September 10, 2012

Israeli startup Dragonplay, a free-to-play social games developer for smartphones and social networks, has raised $14 million in its first financing round from global venture capital firm, Accel Partners. Accel has also invested in the likes of Facebook, Dropbox, Groupon and Rovio.

“The Accel team has backed some of the most admired gaming companies in the world,” said Sharon Tal, founder and CEO of Dragonplay. “We are proud to be joining its portfolio and look forward to working with the team to make Dragonplay a truly global, cross-platform leader in our space.”

Tal founded Dragonplay in 2010. The company is one of the top developers on Google Play. Best known for Live Holdem Poker Pro, Dragonplay specializes in multi-platform social game experiences in the cards and casino category.

The Israeli gaming company’s Live Hold’em Poker Pro has surpassed 12 million downloads and some two million people play the game every month.
In the last year, Dragonplay launched three new apps — Live BlackJack, Farm Slots and Sea Battle.

“Dragonplay benefits directly from the spectacular growth of Android [estimated at more than 800,000 new activations per day], the emergence of smartphones as a primary gaming platform and the impressive growth of the virtual goods market,” says Adam Valkin, partner at Accel Partners who has joined the board of Dragonplay. “This together with Dragonplay’s cross-platform approach and the team’s excellent performance to date suggests that the company is well positioned to continue its rapid growth.”

Dragonplay says it will use the funding to launch new games, expand to Apple’s iOS platform, hire employees, and enter the Asian games market.

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