Company

PlaySpan™ is game industry's first publisher-sponsored™ in-game commerce™ network. PlaySpan's patent-pending in-game search, commerce and micropayment technologies enable game publishers and developers to generate new revenues, acquire new users and extend the loyalty of existing users. Leading game providers and virtual world publishers have selected PlaySpan as their official marketplace for virtual goods commerce.

PlaySpan is based in Silicon Valley with offices in Mumbai and Shanghai.

Investors include Easton Capital, Menlo Ventures, STIC and Novel TMT Ventures.

Investors

Easton Capital Group

Easton Capital Group (Easton) is a venture capital firm that invests in diversified growth capital and life science opportunities through its three funds, Easton Capital Partners, L.P., Easton Hunt Capital Partners, L.P. and Easton Hunt New York LP. Easton’s investment in PlaySpan Inc. builds upon Easton’s focus on leading businesses offering innovative value-added services to the video game industry. Easton is also a lead investor in IGA Worldwide, the largest in-game advertising company with a proprietary ad serving network. Other industry focuses include new media, clean technology, consumer products and life science. Easton’s partners have more than 180 years’ experience in venture capital, having managed more than $1.5 billion in assets. Easton has offices in New York and Florida. For more information, visit www.eastoncapital.com.

Menlo Ventures

Menlo Ventures has spent the past 32 years investing in entrepreneurs that Think Big. With nearly $4 billion in capital and hundreds of years of collective venture and technology management experience, Menlo brings the resources and expertise necessary to help see the most ambitious visions through to success. Investments span the entire information technology landscape with stage ranging from seed to pre-IPO. Representative investments include Cavium Networks, Acme Packet, IronPort (Cisco), 3Par Data, F5 Networks, Hotmail, MobiTV, TeleNav, PlayPhone, and IMVU. For more information, please visit www.menloventures.com.

STIC International

With offices in Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Palo Alto, California, STIC International is the global investment arm of STIC Investments, Inc, one of South Korea’s leading venture capital and private equity financial groups. With over $750 million under management, STIC is one of the largest venture capital investors in Korea, targeting companies with the potential to dominate markets with revolutionary technology, products, or unique business models. STIC and its affiliates leverage their extensive networks in both Korea and the rest of Asia to provide capital, technological expertise, marketing and partnership opportunities to emerging growth companies. For more information, please visit www.sticinternational.com.

Novel TMT Ventures

Novel TMT Ventures Limited is the technology, media and telecom investment arm of Hong Kong based Novel Group. Novel TMT, with approximately US$70 million under management, invests in both public and private TMT companies on a direct as well as indirect basis. Its investment strategy focuses on consumer technology companies and the video gaming sector. Investments are concentrated in the United States and China.

Management Team

Karl Mehta
Co-Founder & CEO

Karl Mehta brings over 16 years of experience to PlaySpan in founding and building high-tech businesses in the US and international markets. Prior to co-founding PlaySpan Inc., Karl was part of the founding team at MobileAria Inc. (acquired by Wireless Matrix) and co-founder/ CEO of OmniLabs Inc.. Prior to that, he held executive positions at Hughes leading new business and technology development. Karl is Charter member of TiE-Silicon Valley and board member of Ecosystem Ventures.

Dan Kolkowitz
CTO & VP Operations

Dan Kolkowitz has been involved in technology development and distributed system development for more than 25 years. Dan co-founded and was VP of Engineering for Swan Labs Inc., a leading vendor in wan optimization which was sold to F5 in 2005. Prior to that, he co-founded MobileAria Inc., Securify Inc, and Compact Devices. Dan has been active in networking and security industry and standards organizations for the past 20 years. Dan has lectured in the CS Department at Stanford University where he completed his Masters in Computer Science.

Tony Colafrancesco
Director of Business Development & Game Integration

Tony Colafrancesco brings more than 14 years of experience in the video game industry with Electronic Arts, Wild Tangent and AOL Games. Prior to joining PlaySpan, Tony managed all gaming and entertainment related business for the AIM Network. His work in AIM integration has resulted in millions of new users to online gaming networks and MMO communities. Some of his more recent accomplishments with AIM integration included Turner Gametap, The Matrix Online, Open AIM, SCI's Playlinc, GGL, and community work with Blizzard. Tony has worked directly with many top titles including Ultima Online, The Sims, Triple Play 2001, Jane's USAF, Need for Speed: High Stakes and Nascar Revolution and as managed relationships with Blizzard, EA, Vivendi, Time Warner, Ubisoft, MTV, LiveNation, Sony, LucasArts, GGL, SCI, Tencent and Tocali Games.

In addition to holding executive and management positions at AOL, Electronic Arts, Wild Tangent and other companies, his previous experience as an engineer at Xerox, Eastman Kodak and SGI gives him a strong grasp of technology in addition to his business roles. Tony’s experience with games and integration of 3rd party software, ensures successful integration of PlaySpan technology with game publishers worldwide.

Alex Fries
VP Strategic Alliances

Alex Fries brings over 15 years of progressive experience in founding, funding, and managing global businesses and has successfully developed three start-up companies. Most recently, Alex co-founded and led the marketing, business development, and strategic partnerships teams for SVOX AG, a venture-backed company in Switzerland. In 2005, Alex acquired a Gaming Studio in Ireland, which he successfully sold to a local Investment firm and previously Alex worked as Executive Vice President of sales and marketing for Advance Visual Communications, a Boston-based venture-backed content company sold to US Web. In 2004, Alex founded Ecosystem Ventures to address investment and support in European technologies and pre-seed-stage companies. Alex is founder of the European-American Angels Club, a Silicon Valley-based organization that actively invests in European Start-ups. Alex received a BA in finance and an M.B.A. in telecommunications and international marketing from the University of San Francisco. He has lived in Hong-Kong, Switzerland, Chile, and the USA, and speaks fluent German, Spanish, French, and English.

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