NEWS &
HIGHLIGHTS
Cypher Games raises $10m
Turkey-based mobile developer Cypher Games has secured $10 million in a seed investment round. The studio aims to use the funding to expand its team and support the global launch of its debut match-3 game.
Read more ‣
Social First secures $4.2M follow-on investment for their social sandbox MMO
Finnish game studio Social First has announced a further $4.2 million seed round led by Crowberry Capital, with original pre-seed investor Play Ventures also investing. The new funding will go towards the company's first product - an as yet unnamed social sandbox MMO, which has been undergoing testing with "thousands of players" already.
Read more ‣
Hypersonic Laboratories raises $7M for sandbox UGC gaming platform
Hypersonic Laboratories has raised $7 million to build Helix, a multiplayer role-playing sandbox platform that will enable creators building game content, to create their own games inside a virtual world.
Read more ‣
Benjamin Capital Partners raises $5.5M to reward cash for gamers
Play Ventures is excited to be backing Benjamin, a consumer cash rewards platform covering games and other everyday Money Moments.
Read more ‣
Play Ventures announces Fund I Performance: 1.5x returned in less than 4 years
Play Ventures is proud to announce industry-leading returns out of our debut Fund I. In less than 4 years, we returned 1.5x to investors in distributed capital (DPI). With 20 companies remaining in the portfolio and 6 years to go in the fund lifetime, that figure is set to further increase significantly.
Read more ‣
Social First Raises $2.5M Pre-Seed For Their Social First Multiplayer Vision
Play Ventures is excited to kick off 2022 with a new addition to our portfolio. Congratulations to founders Kim Soares and Mikko Kähärä, and their veteran team with experience from Ubisoft, Kukouri, and Paradox Interactive! We're very happy to have led their $2.5M Pre-Seed round, and together with Joakim Achrén, look forward to them bringing their vision of social-first, multiplayer, games that can be enjoyed for decades, to life.
Read more ‣
Mod.io Raises $26M Series A Led by Tencent
Huge congrats to the mod.io team for raising a $26M Series A for their platform enabling user-generated content (UGC) for creator-driven gaming communities worldwide. Play Ventures originally backed the team back in 2019 and have been immensely impressed by what they've achieved since - powering mods for 80 games on 11 platforms, with 1M mods created and downloaded 177M times in 2021.
Read more ‣
Ex Pixonic Execs Found Kek Entertainment, Raise $3M Pre-Seed
Play Ventures is proud to be backing Kek Entertainment in their $3 million pre-seed funding round, alongside The Games Fund. Former Pixonic executives Georgy and Oleg founded the Cyprus-Moscow studio, which is going after the multiplayer mobile game market.
Read more ‣
Order of Meta Raises $1.5M For Mobile Shooter
We are happy to share that we have invested in Helsinki-Kaliningrad company 'Order of Meta'. The team has raised a $1.5M pre-seed to build their first title, a mobile shooter game. The team is led by second-time founders Alexey Sazonov and Sergey Kozyakov, who founded mobile game studio Panzerdog (acquired by Mail.ru) where they developed and published Tacticool, a top-down shooter game with over 20 million downloads. Play is excited to be onboard their second entrepreneurship journey!
Read more ‣
Facemoji raises $3M from Play Ventures, Twitter, and more, to launch its free SDKs
The Play team is thrilled to be backing Facemoji, an avatar technology company. Their $3M seed round was led by Play Ventures, and Twitter, Roosh Ventures (behind the popular app ‘“Reface”), Abe Burns, gaming veterans Eric Seufert, Chris Lee, and others, also participated. The Facemoji SDK and Figma-like 3D content creator with an NFT collection generator will soon be available via their self-serve platform 'Facemoji Studio'.
Read more ‣
Ex MachineZone and Rovio veterans launch Original Games with $6M Seed Funding
Congrats to the Original Games team on closing their seed round, which will power them to scale their debut game 'Merge Inn' globally. We're honoured to lead the round alongside OG gaming entrepreneurs Anton Gauffin (founder of Huuge), Riccardo Zacconi (founder of King) and Kristian Segerstråle (CEO of Super Evil Megacorp).
Read more ‣
Reworks Acquired By Playtika For Up To $600M
One of Play's first investments Reworks has been acquired by Playtika for $400M and a $200M earn-out. We are proud to have backed the company from the very first pre-seed round to subsequent rounds, and to have played a small role in helping with game design, recruitment, fundraising and more, along the way. Congrats to CEO Ilkka Teppo and his awesome team for this achievement, all in less than 3 years!
Read more ‣
Play Ventures - Mobile Games Awards Investor of The Year
We're proud to win the prestigious Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Award for Investor of the Year! Over the past 3 years, we've been incredibly humbled by how entrepreneurs have embraced us, and are also thankful to the 32+ companies who have chosen to take us along their entrepreneurship adventure. Massive thanks to our own fund investors, partners, families, Pocket Gamer, and Steel Media.
Read more ‣
Play Ventures' US$135M Fund II To Power Future Unicorns of Gaming
We are excited to announce the closing of Play Ventures Fund II, a $135M fund that we will invest in the world’s best game makers and entrepreneurs. This is a milestone for us, and brings our total assets under management to $175M across both our funds.
Read more ‣
PLAY CO-INVESTS $1.5 MILLION INTO INDIA-BASED SPORTS GAMING STUDIO ALL-STAR GAMES
Lumikai and Play Ventures have made a $1.5M pre-series A investment into leading Indian midcore sports studio All-Star Games.
Read more ‣
COLOSSI GAMES SECURES $2.5 MILLION IN SEED FUNDING
Mobile games developer Colossi Games has secured $2.5 million in seed funding. EQT Ventures led the investment, with further participation from existing backer Play Ventures.
Read more ‣
MOBILE PREMIER LEAGUE RAISES $95M FROM COMPOSITE CAPITAL, PLAY VENTURES, AND MORE
The Series D funding was led by Composite Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures. Play Ventures also participated in the round, which values MPL at $945 million.
Read more ‣
SAVAGE GAME STUDIOS RAISES $4.4 MILLION FOR MOBILE SHOOTER GAME
Savage Game Studios has raised $4.4 million to create two mobile game studios in Helsinki and Berlin. The company is at work on its first title, a mobile game shooter. Makers Fund led the $4.4 million seed round with participation from Play Ventures, who led their pre-seed round.
Read more ‣
Mod.io CLOSES $4M Round Led By Sequoia Capital India's Surge, Makers Fund
Australian cross-platform modding service Mod.io has raised $4M in a round led by Sequoia Capital India's Surge and Makers Fund. The funding will help the team bring UGC to more games and platforms, and provide studios with a turnkey solution for launching integrated UGC communities.
Read more ‣.jpg)
BIGGER GAMES CLOSES $6M ROUND lED BY INDEX VENTURES
Istanbul’s Bigger Games has raised a $6M round led by Index Ventures, who have backed the likes of Roblox, King, and Supercell. Play Ventures led the pre-seed round and participated in the new round. The team will be using the funding to pursue opportunities in casual puzzle games.
Read more ‣
Traplight RAISES $9M And LauncHES 'Battle Legion' GLOBALLY
Finnish mobile firm Traplight Games has raised €8M ($9M) to scale their trail-blazing game 'Battle Legion'. EQT Ventures led the investment with further participation from Play Ventures, Initial Capital, and Heartcore Capital
Read more ‣
Reworks Raises $4.3M IN ROUND Led By EQT Ventures
Helsinki-based studio Reworks has raised €4M ($4.3M) from a funding round led by EQT Ventures. Founded in 2018, the firm is helmed by former Sumoing staff, who have been creating apps and games together for seven years. Other investors include Play Ventures and Huuuge Games CEO Anton Gauffin.
Read more ‣
Starberry Games Raises €1.1M From ByFounders AND Play Ventures
Award-winning mobile games studio StarBerry Games has raised €1.1M to develop and publish casual mobile games. The round was led by byFounders with participation from Play Ventures.
Read more ‣
Mainframe Industries Raises $8.3M From Andreessen Horowitz, Riot Games, Play Ventures
The Finnish-Icelandic gaming studio founded by former CCP, Remedy Entertainment, and Next Games veterans, is developing an unannounced, cloud-native, massively multiplayer online game.
Read more ‣
Potato Play Raises $500,000 From Play Ventures To Expand Operations
Singapore-based mobile games publisher Potato Play has raised $500,000 in a pre-seed funding round to help push Asia-developed games worldwide. The round was led by Play Ventures.
Read more ‣
Mod.Io RAISES $1M in ROUND led by play ventures
Play Ventures has led a $1M investment round into Mod.io in Melbourne. The team is on a mission to take UGC in games to a new level using its breakthrough cross-platform tools.
Read more ‣
Play VENTURES LEADS $1.8M FUNDING ROUND In FunCraft
FunCraft, a new studio headed by former Electronic Arts and Zynga veterans, has raised $1.8M to make “casual forever” mobile games. The round was led by Play Ventures, with participation from Zynga cofounder Mark Pincus, CEOs of Huuuge Games and Gucci, Facebook’s Mike Verdu, John Robinson of 100 Thieves, among others.
Read more ‣
DATASEAT RAISES $2.3M from Play ventures, backed.vc, saatchinvest
Dataseat, a tech startup that helps advertisers manage mobile app campaigns in-house, has raised £1.75M ($2.3M) from Play Ventures, Backed.vc, and Saatchiinvest. Former Criteo CEO Eric Eichmann and CPO Jonathan Wolf also participated.
Read more ‣
Play VENTURES Backs Mainframe Industries in €2M round
Play Ventures has invested in a €2M funding round for Mainframe Studios, formed by veterans of CCP, Remedy, and Next Games. The studio is focused on building the first MMO specifically developed for cloud platforms.
Read more ‣
Play Ventures Invests In Starform - A New Studio By Former King And Z2 Veterans
Starform -- a new Seattle-based game studio that former King and Z2Live mobile game veterans started -- has raised $1.25M and announced plans to make online games across various platforms.
Read more ‣
Our First Fund Over-Subscribed At $40m
We are super happy and proud to announce that our debut fund was over subscribed at $40M. We're excited to use these funds to help create the next billion dollar games companies in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.
Read more ‣
Redhill Games Raises $11.4m in round led by Makers fund
Play Ventures portfolio company Redhill Games has raised $11.4M in an investment round led by Makers Fund, along with project financing from Kowloon Nights. Play Ventures participated in the new round as well.
Read more ‣
Gamejam Publishes Marshmello Music Dance Game
“It’s very exciting for Gamejam to be the first game developer ever to partner with an artist well-known like Marshmello to launch an album exclusive for 24 hours within a game which has never been achieved before,” said Christian Calderon, CEO of Gamejam, in a statement. Play Ventures invested in Gamejam in May 2019.
Read more ‣
Reworks Raises $1.5m As Studio Looks To Challenge Glu Mobile’s Design Home
Helsinki-based Reworks has raised $1.5M in pre-seed funding as the company looks to challenge the “customisation games” market. Play Ventures originally invested originally in the Reworks team in December 2018.
Read more ‣
Rovio -- Makers Of Angry Birds -- iNVESTS In Play Ventures
We are very excited and humbled to announce Rovio – makers of Angry Birds – joining as an investor in Play Ventures. Thank you Rovio for joining our mission to create the world’s #1 early stage gaming fund.
Read more ‣
MODERN TIME GROUP Invests In Play Ventures
We are thrilled to welcome international entertainment powerhouse Modern Time Group (MTG) onboard as a limited partner. Play Ventures is proud to be working with MTG in backing the next generation of top gaming companies.
Read more ‣
Henric Suuronen SHAREs HIS INVESTMENT JOURNEY
Henric shares his investment beginnings, wins, and why he’s investing his own funds heavily into Play Ventures. Meet one of the men behind the world’s leading early stage gaming fund.
Read more ‣
[IN FINNISH] Kultasormet Perustivat Uuden Rahaston - Play Ventures Keräsi 30 Miljoonaa Euroa Sijoitettavaa Pelialan Startupeihin
Uuden Play Ventures -pääomasijoitusrahaston perustajat Harri Manninen ja Henric Suuronen tunnetaan peliyrittäjinä, jotka ovat myyneet omat yhtiönsä menestyksellisesti Disneylle ja Kingille.
Read more ‣
Play Ventures Will Invest $30M In Game Startups GLOBALLY
Play Ventures is raising a $30M fund to invest in game startups. The company will be led by Harri Manninen in Helsinki and Henric Suuronen in Singapore, but it will invest in startups around the world.
Read more ‣