For Game Makers by Game makers
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HENRIC SUURONEN
Founding Partner
Henric previously co-founded Nonstop Games which was acquired by King for US$32M + earnout and was an early investor in Huuuge Games (IPO),Omniata (acquired by King), DataTiger (acquired by Apple), Astralis Group (IPO on Nasdaq), and more.
He has over 16 years of experience building mobile games and studios. He was previously Product Management Director at Digital Chocolate (Helsinki and Barcelona), Head of Studio at Wooga (Berlin), and Senior Creative Director at King.
Henric is based in Singapore and frequently travels to the main gaming hubs in Europe and the US. He is rated by founders and TechCrunch as one of the "Most Engaged" VCs.
HARRI MANNINEN
Founding Partner
Harri has over 18 years experience in gaming and previously co-founded Rocket Pack, which was acquired by Disney in 2011. He is also the co-founder of Matchmade (Shark Punch), the leading influencer marketing platform for games.
Harri’s angel investment portfolio includes several startups in the gaming and technology space, including Mighty Bear Games, Starberry Games, Matchmade, Vizor Bloom, FitXR, and Transfluent. Harri also built Nordic XR Startups pre-seed accelerator in Helsinki, with partners gumi and Nordisk Film, where he led investments into 10 early stage Nordic VR/AR startups.
Harri is based in Helsinki and is the only Helsinki-based VC on TechCrunch's "Most Engaged" list of VCs.
PHYLICIA KOH
General Partner
Phylicia is based in Singapore and leads new investments into game studios, tech, and plays into the intersection of gaming and lifestyle. She also leads Play's diversity and inclusion initiatives and is part of Play's ESG committee.
Before joining Play as Employee #1, Phylicia spent 9 years in marketing and growth, working with the likes of Mighty Bear Games, Voice Labs, Homage, Ethnicraft Online, as well as for the Singapore Economic Development Board.
ANTON BACKMAN
General Partner
Based in Helsinki, Anton leads new investments across game studios, platforms and tech.
Anton started his career balancing internships at major Nordic corporate law firms and managing VC and LP relations at the leading startup event Slush. During law school he co-founded Wave Ventures, a micro-VC backed by the founders of Supercell, Skype and other Nordic growth companies.
After his stint at Wave Ventures he co-founded a web3 startup in 2018. He joined the Play Ventures team in 2019.
KENRICK DRIJKONINGEN
General Partner
From July 2021, Kenrick will be the partner of our Play Future Fund. As an early adopter of all things crypto he founded LuneX Ventures in 2018 investing in equity and tokens of blockchain & crypto companies building the decentralized web. Before that he was running growth strategies with numerous startups in Singapore including Zalora/Lazada, Nonstop Games, Travelmob and Golden Gate Ventures.
Kenrick is a strong believer in the disruptive power of public blockchains to create a more level playing field for developers, creators and individuals alike. He's also an active angel investor in a number of gaming companies.
JUHA LINDELL
Director of Platform
Juha is based in Berlin and heads our platform function, focusing on supporting founders hands-on on a variety of topics and connecting the dots across our networks.
Juha has over a decade of experience in building products and ventures in gaming and other B2C verticals, thanks to his time at Digital Chocolate, Wooga and BCG Digital Ventures.
ZHENDE LOW
Finance Associate
Based in Singapore, Zhende takes close care of our finance topics.
Prior to joining Play Ventures, Zhende started his career in KPMG where he worked with a spectrum of companies across different industries.
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JASON CHAN
Head of Compliance
Based in Singapore, Jason brings with him over 12 years of industry experience in compliance topics.
Jason was previously the Head of Compliance at Indies Capital Partners, a private equity fund. Prior to that, he held roles as Compliance Officer at Manulife Asset Management, Assurance & Advisory in Deloitte and other public accounting firms.
FLORENT SIMON
Principal
Based in Paris, Florent joined our investment team, working on investment evaluation, due diligence and portfolio support.
Florent was previously helping app developers and gaming studios find growth, first through his role in Google’s Mobile Gaming team and then as an independent consultant.
JOE BURRIDGE
Head of Talent
Joe is a recruiting leader with over a decade of experience in the tech and games industry – most recently at Electronic Arts and Epic Games. He has hired for world class games and tools such as Fortnite, Unreal Engine, Rocket League, Need For Speed, Battlefield and Frostbite.
Joe is also passionate about sharing his knowledge and helping others enter the games industry. He does this through content on social media as well as frequent online and in-person visits to schools, colleges and universities across the world.
ELIANA KIM
Head of Events
Based in Seoul, Eliana has close to 20 yrs experience in the event world.
Prior to Play Ventures, Eliana was executing large scale events for Google at MakerLab and was previously the account director for Cartel Creative, spearheading events for Red Bull, Supercell and Intel to name a few.
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MICHAIL KATKOFF
Advisor
Michail Katkoff has well over a decade of experience in building free-to-play games and kick-ass game teams. Prior to starting his own gaming startup, which was acquired by PlayStation in 2022, he held leadership and product management positions at Supercell, Zynga, FunPlus and Rovio. He's also known as the founder of famous gaming blog and podcast, Deconstructor of Fun.
