Raptr, an online social gaming company, on Thursday said it received a $12 million first round of funding led by Accel Partners and the Founders Fund. 

 

The startup was founded by Xfire co-founder Dennis Fong, a serial entrepreneur and well-known gamer. His Xfire, a social site and instant messager for gamers, was bought by Viacom for $102 million in 2006.  

 

Funding for Raptr will be used toward “building the team and building up the product,”  Mr. Fong said.

 

The service allows gamers to download a client that tracks gaming activity on a variety of platforms, including PC, Xbox Live, Mac, as well as some games on the Wii and PlayStation 3. The process is automatic, with players inputting initial information and the client taking care of the rest.

 

The site itself is a social gaming and networking site, with constant updates letting Raptr users know when and what their friends are playing and vice versa, and players can also be notified via Facebook, Twitter, and Friendfeed. Users can add friends, send messages, and check the “activity feed,” similar to the Facebook news feed, which shows updates--such as recently added friends--and game achievements.

 

The integration with other social sites such as Facebook and Twitter will be significant in marketing Raptr to other users because initially, says Fong, “not everyone will necessarily want to be on a gaming specific network, so this way you can reach out to friends who are not on Raptr.”

Mr. Fong, a world champion gamer known by "Thresh" in gaming circles and named as a “Top 20 Entrepreneur Under 35” by Red Herring, also hopes his celebrity status and “street cred” within the gaming community will propel Raptr.

 

The online service is also providing a “Raptr Card,” which Fong describes as an embeddable widget that shows in real time what game someone is playing now and the previous 6 games played.

 

Additionally, the client sends game recommendations based on what a user’s friends are playing, and automatically updates games with patches.

 

Raptr is also in talks with distributors such as Steam to bundle their client with a variety of games coming out in the next year.

 

Raptr is free to everyone, though because it is still in beta mode, users will need to register for an invitation.