Ludei, a company known for its HTML5 platform that allows developers to create apps and games, recently secured $1.5 million in funding in a round led by Kibo Ventures and Vitamina K, with contribution from several angel investors. As usual with any young company, Ludei plans to put this money toward expansion, specifically in terms of its JavaScript/HTML5 engineering team.

"This funding further validates our approach to HTML5 development," said Ludei CEO Eneko Knorr. "HTML5 has taken a lot of criticism in recent years, and it’s true that on its own, it performs poorly on mobile. But our team and the world-class developers using our platform are proving every day that with the right support, HTML5 is ready for primetime, and we’re positioned to take on the biggest players in the app industry."

The Ludei Cloud Complier was made available via an open public beta in September 2012, allowing any HTML5 game or Web app developer to build apps for delivery to the Apple App Store, as well as the Google (News – Alert) Play market, signifying the company’s shift to mobile. More recently, Ludei enhanced its game development platform with 3D support, enabling developers to deliver WebGL 3D games to nearly any mobile device.

With such steady improvement to the Ludei Platform, it’s no wonder that more than 6,000 developers — including three of the top 20 game publishers in the world — are using it to power HTML5 apps. So far, more than 500 games have been developed using the platform, including ScribbleMix, Lunch Bug, Bubble Soccer and Rhino Hero.

This growth seems likely to continue as well, considering the Ludei is the only solution that supports WebGL on every iOS and Android (News – Alert) device, not to mention that it is constantly being updated to support emerging platforms, such as the Ouya and Tizen.

With this new investment, Ludei’s total funding to date amounts to $4.5 million.