Rixty Raises $1.24 Million in Seed Capital to Fuel Growth of Its Cash-Based Payment System for Online Entertainment

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rixty today announced it has raised $1.24 million in seed capital to accelerate the growth of its popular cash-based payment system for online entertainment. San Francisco-based Javelin Venture Partners led the round and was joined by Accelerator Ventures, First Round Capital, Freestyle Capital, Nueva Ventures, Soft Tech VC and several strategic angel investors. The company will use the financing to fuel the growth of its publisher network, expand its product offering and increase its user base.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have both of them as board members helping guide Rixty’s growth.”

Rixty is the alternative payment platform that allows consumers without credit cards or bank accounts, especially young consumers, to create spending accounts for online entertainment simply by taking their cash to one of 20,000 locations, including Coinstar kiosks and participating convenience stores. “Rixty gives anyone with cash – including the 70 million youth and adults in the U.S. who don’t have credit cards – an easy, convenient and anonymous way to pay for virtual currency for online games, virtual worlds and social networks,” said Rixty founder and CEO Ted Sorom. “This additional funding will allow Rixty to expand its network of entertainment partners provide more options for our thousands of consumers.”

Noah Doyle, managing director of Javelin Venture Partners, said, “It was the large market opportunity – giving millions of consumers without credit cards a way to participate in online entertainment – that motivated our firm to invest. Rixty is helping publishers reach a huge, untapped market. They have shown incredible momentum, tripling their transaction volume between the third and fourth quarters of 2009.” Since Rixty’s July 2009 launch, the payment system’s reach has grown from 20 games, to thousands of online games, including more than 100 of the most popular massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) and thousands of social and casual games.

Noah Doyle and Keval Desai will be joining Rixty’s board of directors. Doyle was the co-founder of MyPoints.com, a leading Internet loyalty rewards program, which he helped take public in 1998. He was also a senior executive at Keyhole, which was acquired by Google, Inc. and later became Google Earth. Desai is the vice president of product at Digg, and was previously director of product management at Google, Inc., and co-founder of Achex, a developer of online payment systems which was eventually sold to First Data.

“Noah and Keval have a strong track record in online financial services, Web commerce, and consumer-centric product development,” said Ted Sorom. “We are incredibly fortunate to have both of them as board members helping guide Rixty’s growth.”

About Rixty

Rixty is an alternative payment platform that makes it easy for youth and others without credit cards to make online entertainment purchases by converting their cash into online credits at more than 20,000 Coinstar kiosks and retail locations nationwide. By making it easy for cash-based consumers to spend money on multiplayer and downloadable games, virtual worlds, social networks, mobile games, ringtones, and mp3 downloads, Rixty helps publishers increase overall sales, attract new customers and enables a variety of emerging business models, from online subscriptions to microtransactions for virtual goods and digital content.

For more information, please visit www.rixty.com.