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CHARGING FORWARD, TOGETHER
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UPDATES
DreamCraft to enhance game creation platform with $10M fundraise
DreamCraft Entertainment announced today that it closed a $10 million round of fundraising that will go towards its game creation platform. DreamCraft is building a game development platform and editor that makes the process of creating a game easier. The point is to have a game creation solution for those who lack the programming and development experience to use other, more complex tools. The round was led by March Gaming, with other investors including Makers Fund, Dune Ventures, and Hiro Capital.
AudioMob, which serves audio ads inside mobile games, raises a $14M Series A
AudioMob is a startup that provides ‘non-intrusive’ audio ads within mobile games. It turns out that gamers don’t seem to mind little ads like this popping up, and somehow AudioMob seems to have cracked the mechanic.
It’s now raised a $14 million Series A round led by Makers Fund and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Also participating are the Sequoia Scout Program and Google. Total investment to date is now at $16 million.
Mod.io raises $26m in Series A funding
Modding platform Mod.io has raised $26 million in a round of Series A funding. The round was led by Tencent, with participation from Lego Ventures, and returning investors Makers Fund, Play Ventures, Sequoia Capital India's Surge, GameTech Ventures and OIF Ventures.
Mod.io works with studios around the world to enable and support user-generated content across a number of games. It currently lists over 80 titles on its website, including Saber Interactive's Snow Runner and Keen Software's Space Engineers.
Microsoft acquires AI-powered moderation platform Two Hat
Microsoft today announced that it acquired Two Hat, an AI-powered content moderation platform, for an undisclosed amount. According to Xbox product services CVP Dave McCarthy, the purchase will combine the technology, research capabilities, teams, and cloud infrastructure of both companies to serve Two Hat’s existing and new customers and “multiple product and service experiences: at Microsoft.
Piepacker raises $12m in funding round
Social gaming site Piepacker has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by LEGO Ventures with support from long-term investors Makers Fund and V13 Interest, among others.
"We created Piepacker to offer a social and low tech-friendly cloud gaming platform," said Piepacker CEO Benjamin Devienne. "We designed it to be accessible to everyone: available directly from a web browser, it does not require a high-speed internet connection to provide a seamless multiplayer game experience."
Captain.tv, creator of Stream Raiders, receives funding to make new games
Captain.tv raised $10 million from investors, including Makers Fund, Galaxy Digital, and Betaworks, which it plans to use to create more games specifically for streamers.
Captain designed Stream Raiders for content creators who livestream. Streamers can play the game by itself or in the background of another game, and audiences can play along with them. Captain is developing new games for streaming platforms and new sources of revenue for content creators. One of the games in development is Stream Pirates, a shared world treasure hunt. Another is Chat Plays Chess, in which stream viewers can play a game of chess against the streamer.
Zenith VR MMO Team Raises $10 Million
Ramen VR, a small game studio based in the Bay Area, has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Makers Fund, with participation from Dune Ventures and Anthos Capital. The funding round comes as the small (12 full-timers) studio prepares to launch Zenith: The Last City, a VR title that follows in the footsteps of MMOs like World of Warcraft and Destiny. Zenith will come to Oculus Quest, PlayStation VR and PC VR.
AviaGames raises $40M to diversify mobile skill-based gaming
AviaGames has raised $40 million to diversify mobile skill-based gaming where players can compete against each other for cash prizes.
The funding is a pretty big win for the female founders of Mountain View, California-based AviaGames, and it’s an endorsement for their strategy of creating an inclusive competition platform for everybody. The money came from ACME Capital, Washington Harbour Partners and Powerhouse Capital. Previous investors including Makers Fund and Galaxy Digital also participated in the round.
Fast Company's most creative people of 2021 - for delighting fans: The Game Band
Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business list features 72 individuals who’ve made strides this past year that no one has ever made before. Among this year's list are Stephen Bell, Joel Clark, and Sam Rosenthal from The Game Band, who have invented a new kind of game and a new form of design to accommodate it.
If the game itself sounds novel, the rabid fan culture that’s risen up around it is more so, with players extending the Blaseball universe via Twitter team accounts, Discord communities, made-up broadcasts on Twitch, and more.
Unity to acquire Parsec in its biggest acquisition to date
Unity, the company behind the super popular 2D/3D engine of the same name, is today announcing plans to make its biggest acquisition to date. Unity says it will acquire Parsec, a remote desktop tool for developers and creatives, for $320 million in cash.
Parsec’s pitch has long been remote desktop access without compromise. Tuned for creatives, it works fine even if your rig has multiple high-resolution displays. It’ll stream your work-in-progress artwork without screwing up the colors, and it’ll play friendly with fancier input devices like pressure-sensitive drawing tablets.
Genvid Raises $113M to Build Out Massive Interactive Live Games
Genvid wants to bootstrap a new category of large-scale interactive games that unfold in real-time — based on well-known movie, comic book or gaming franchises. It’s banked a big $113 million round to form Genvid Entertainment, a new game publishing unit dedicated to producing what the company calls “massive interactive live events,” or MILEs.
To lend Genvid Entertainment a hand in navigating Hollywood, the company has recruited Cindy Holland, an 18-year Netflix veteran, as a strategic content adviser. Holland, former VP of original content at Netflix, founded and ran its original series and documentary initiatives for eight years before exiting the company last year amid a larger reorg.
WinZO raises $65M in Series C round led by Griffin Gaming Partners
WinZO, the gaming and entertainment platform, has raised $65 million in a Series C funding round, led by California-based Griffin Gaming Partners, taking the total tally of capital raised by the company to $90 million. Griffin is making its first-ever investment in India in WinZO. This financing follows only eight months after the company raised its Series B from returning investors Makers Fund, Courtside Ventures, and Steve Pagliuca, Co-Chairman of Bain Capital.
Dream Games raises $155M at a $1B valuation as its Royal Match puzzle game hits a royal flush
Dream Games — a developer of mobile puzzle games — has raised $155 million in funding, a Series B that values the startup at $1 billion. This is a massive leap for the company, which raised $50 million (the largest Series A in Turkey’s startup history) only 3.5 months ago. This latest round is being co-led by Index Ventures and Makers Fund, with Balderton Capital, IVP and Kora also participating.
The game has been a huge hit for Dream, with 6 million monthly active users and $20 million/month in revenues from in-game purchases (not ads). This has catapulted it into the top-20 grossing games categories in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, the same echelon as much older and bigger titles like Candy Crush and Homescapes.
VRChat Partners With Anthos Capital to Close $80M Series D
VRChat, a social VR platform that allows users to create, publish, and explore virtual worlds with other users around the globe, announced a Series D investment round of $80 million. The round was led by Anthos Capital, alongside participating investors Makers Fund, GFR Fund and others.
VRChat is the leading social VR platform with millions of users, hundreds of thousands of worlds and over ten million unique avatars. It’s the top free VR application on both the Steam and Oculus Rift store, with over 40,000 concurrent users.
Piepacker raises $3m in seed funding round
Web browser-based gaming platform Piepacker has announced that it has raised $3 million in a seed funding round. The funds will support the company's free-to-play, online social service dedicated to officially licensed retro games. Along with its funding, Piepacker also raised $220,000 from its Kickstarter campaign.
"Our goal with Piepacker has always been to build the platform fans of retro gaming have been dreaming of," said co-founder and CEO of Piepacker Benjamin Devienne.
Welcome Unit 2 Games to Facebook Gaming
Unit 2 Games was formed with the vision of democratizing game creation, thanks to Crayta — a collaborative and accessible platform that they’ve built from the ground up. The team has also helped establish new gaming creators while building communities around their content. Facebook Gaming shares these goals, and today we’re honored to welcome Unit 2 Games to the team.
Blaseball developers score $3M seed funding to go mobile
Blaseball, the text-based fantasy fantasy league, has attracted hundreds of thousands of players and now $3 million in funding to build up the game and go mobile.
Rosenthal said they resisted seeking funding to begin with due to a desire for independence, but was enthused about their choice of investor, Makers Fund, saying they actually understand Blaseball and have been partners rather than parents when it comes to moving the operation towards making money. “They know we can’t just copy monetization from another game and put it in Blaseball, that would ruin the experience right away. They have an amazing network of people in the games industry, and at the end of the day they’re not prescriptive,” he said.
Gaggle Studios raises $2m, and their debut title, Goose Goose Duck, launches in Early Access today
Goose Goose Duck developer Gaggle Studios has closed a seed round of $2 million from early-stage VC firm Makers Fund. The funding will go towards enhancing the "speed and quality" of Gaggle's development pipeline as well as expand the team, the studio said in its announcement.
Goose Goose Duck, a multiplayer survival game inspired by Among Us, will be launching in Early Access today. Gaggle was founded in April last year to "fill a gap in the video game marketplace where they saw a lack of frictionless, integrated voice and video-chat gaming."
Multiverse Closes $17.5 Million Funding Round To Take Your Tabletop RPGs Online
Multiverse, Inc., has raised $17.5 million to create One More Multiverse, a platform that allows gamers and streamers to play tabletop role-playing titles online. Its latest Series A funding includes Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Crunchyroll co-founder Kun Gao, Oculus VR co-founder Nate Mitchell, VC firms Anthos Capital and Makers Fund, TSM founder Andy Dinh, and streamer Pokimane.
One More Multiverse isn’t a game itself; rather, it’s a free-to-play platform, currently in closed beta, for players to use to build and play their own favorite tabletop RPGs with friends online. Gamers can create and stream shared games with provided character sheets, custom art, rule sets, virtual dice and custom settings. The interface is designed to look like classic RPG videogames, and it’s mobile-device friendly.
Lightheart raises $6.8m in Series A funding
Lightheart Entertainment announced today that it has raised $6.8 million in Series A funding. The funding round was led by Makers Fund, along with existing investments from Galaxy Interactive, Sisu Game Ventures, and additional angel investors.
The Helsinki, Finland based studio said that it will use the funding to grow its team and develop more titles like its first game, Mr Autofire. Mr Autofire launched in November of 2019 and has generated over $10 million in revenue to date.
Hello Neighbor indie publisher TinyBuild goes public with $474M valuation
Indie games publisher TinyBuild, known for its Hello Neighbor games, went public on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market, with a valuation of $474 million.
The Seattle-based company raised $49 million in the initial public offering (IPO), and the stock closed at £215 ($298.76), up from the opening price of £169. The closing value of the company was $600 million. It’s a rare moment for an indie game publisher, as most companies in this category do not go public.
Istanbul’s Dream Games snaps up $50M and launches its first game, the puzzle-based Royal Match
Istanbul-based, Peak alum-founded Dream Games, is announcing the GA launch of its first title, Royal Match (on both iOS and Android), along with $50 million in funding to double down on the opportunity ahead — the largest Series A raised by a startup in Turkey to date.
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.
The team is headed by Michail Katkoff, the CEO and cofounder of Savage Game Studios. The funding comes from seasoned game venture capital funds Makers Fund and Play Ventures. Katkoff is the founder of the popular Deconstructor of Fun blog and podcast, and the founding team includes seasoned gaming veterans from Rockstar, Wargaming, Rovio, and Next Games.
Parsec raises $25 million in Series B round
Streaming tech company Parsec has raised $25 million in a series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The round also included previous investors Makers Fund, Notation Capital, NextView Ventures, and Lerer Hippeau.
The investment will go towards further developing its remote interactive desktop application, Parsec for Teams. It's geared towards a use by game studios for remote working, with clients including EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, and Square Enix. Parsec intends to introduce new products that improve creation, communication, and collaboration for a wide variety of remote tasks.
Mod.io raises $4 million to grow its cross-platform modding service
Cross-platform modding service mod.io has raised $4 million in funding, which it plans to use to both simplify its mod support capabilities and to build more advanced features surrounding metrics, moderation, persistence, branded integration, and creator economies into the toolset. The round was led by Sequoia Capital India's Surge and Makers Fund, along with participation from Play Ventures, Gametech Ventures, and Machinefloor.
Genvid powers Rival Peak, a cloud-native streaming experience launched by Facebook
Just weeks into Facebook’s debut into the cloud gaming market, it has its first “exclusive” title that’s a perfect fit for Facebook users: a reality show that lives completely in the cloud. “Rival Peak" is a Facebook Watch program in which artificial intelligence-driven “contestants” will live, work and exist for every minute of the day within the fictional region of Rival Peak, a mountainous forest region that emulates the Pacific Northwest. With a diverse cast of internationally-based characters, Facebook users will decide what each contestant of the show will do in the game, how they behave, and who will basically be “voted out” by the end of every week of its 12-week run.
The game/show is being developed by Pipeworks Studios and Genvid Technologies, including former staff of the beloved-but-shuttered Telltale Games.
End Game and VRChat portfolio founders featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 for 2021
This year's Forbes 30u30 includes End Game's Yang Liu and Luke Zbihlyj and VRChat's Graham Gaylor. We are proud of and excited for them!
With a unique ecosystem, the games industry allows a wide variety of creatives to thrive, from the esports athletes and streamers who play the games to the founders and indie designers who make them. That includes Yang Liu, cofounder and CEO of End Game Interactive, which develops simple but addictive multiplayer games including ZombsRoyale.io, which is slated to bring in $4 million in revenue this year with the help of its 65 million players who game on iOS, Android, PC or the web.
Asobu: Putting Japan's indies on the international map
Co-founder Mark MacDonald discusses why Japan didn't have an indie boom, and Asobu's plans to kickstart one anyway. Asobu was founded by MacDonald, Makers Fund's Zen Chao, documentary filmmaker Anne Ferrero, and a collective of Japan's more prominent independent developers -- including Downwell creator Ojiro Fumoto and Chibi Robo director Kenichi Nishi. Asobu plans to promote the Japanese indie scene both domestically and internationally, with a full programme of events and evangelism, and a free shared workspace in central Tokyo.
Gameye closes $2.4m funding round
Multiplayer gaming specialist Gameye has closed a $2.4 million round of funding, its second in just over 18 months. The Dutch firm has raised $2.4 million in investment in a round led by Lakestar and Volta Ventures.
WinZO raises $18 million in Series B round
Gaming platform WinZO said on Thursday that it had raised $18 million in a Series B funding round led by Makers Fund and Courtside Ventures. Singapore-based Makers Fund is a global interactive entertainment fund, and Courtside Ventures is based in New York.
Parsec partners with Ubisoft to deliver new game streaming experiences
Parsec’s excited to announce a long term partnership with game creator and publisher Ubisoft. The team at Ubisoft has entered into a multi-year partnership to use Parsec’s SDK to advance their game streaming efforts, embedding our tech to power in-game experiences, demos, events, and other projects
ControlZee raises $3 million for ‘massively interactive swarm games’
ControlZee has raised $3 million to bring instantly playable multiplayer worlds to life. The company refers to its titles — which are controlled by masses of players at the same time — as “massively interactive swarm games.”
Streaming startup Parsec raises $7m in funding
The streaming tech startup Parsec has raised $7 million in a series A round, led by Makers Fund.
Parsec For Teams launched in March this year, and uses the firm's technology to support remote interactive desktop applications. While it is relevant to creative professionals in general, the product is pitched specifically at game developers.
Game creation platform Crayta coming to Google Stadia this summer
Today during Google's Stadia Connect presentation, it was announced that game creation platform Crayta (Unit 2 Games) will launch on the service this summer.
Superplus Games raises $4.7 million to bring player-versus-player competition to casual gamers
Finland is still a hotbed for mobile games. The latest proof of that is Superplus Games, which has raised $4.7 million to bring more player-versus-player competition to casual gamers.
Genvid raises $6 million more from investors, unveils 5 games using its streaming tech
Genvid Technologies has expanded its latest round of funding with additional funding from strategic investors NTT Docomo Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and Huya. Full told, the streaming company’s Series B funding has now reached $33 million, up from $27 million announced in November, and it’s raised $53 million to date.
Rune founders selected in 30 under 30 in Europe
The two founders of Rune have been selected for 30 under 30 in EUROPE-SPORTS & GAMES category.
End Game, the startup behind Zombs Royale, raises $3M
End Game has just raised $3 million in seed funding from an impressive group of investors: The round was led by the game-focused firm Makers Fund, with participation from Clash of Clans developer Supercell, Unity CEO David Helgason, Twitch COO Kevin Lin, Twitch VP Hubert Thieblot, Danny Epstien and Alexandre Cohen of Main Street Advisors and music executive Scooter Braun.
Midnite raises $2.5M for its esports betting platform
Midnite, the London-based esports betting startup from the same team behind daily fantasy football app Dribble, has raised just over $2.5 million in funding. The “strategic” investment is led by gaming-focussed venture firm Makers Fund.
Google buys triple-A game dev Typhoon Studio to beef up Stadia
Google’s Stadia cloud gaming division has acquired Typhoon Studio, a Montreal-based triple-A game development house. The move is part of Stadia’s plan to double down on internally produced talent to create exclusive content for the Stadia platform, which launched in November for early adopters.
Nine to Five Is a New Tactical FPS From Ex-Remedy and Wargaming Devs
Game-development veterans from studios like Wargaming (makers of World of Warships and more) and Remedy (whose most recent game, Control, just won IGN's 2019 Game of the Year award) have formed a new studio called Redhill Games. At The Game Awards, Red Hill announced its debut title Nine to Five, a new team-based tactical FPS.
Genvid Technologies raises $27 million for interactive streaming engine
Genvid Technologies has raised $27 million in funding for its interactive streaming engine. Galaxy Interactive, the division of merchant bank Galaxy Digital, led the round, bringing the startup’s total funding raised to $47 million. The New York-based Genvid‘s interactive streaming engine enables customers to monetize livestreams through sponsorships and in-stream purchases. Genvid CEO Jacob Navok said in an interview with GamesBeat that his company aims to make spectating games and esports on streams more interesting and interactive for players.
Dream Games raises $7.5M seed to develop ‘high-quality’ puzzle games
Dream Games, a Turkish mobile gaming company founded by former Peak Games employees who worked together on hit puzzle games Toy Blast and Toon Blast, has raised $7.5 million in seed funding. Leading the round is Makers Fund, with co-investment from London’s Balderton Capital. The funding will be used to increase headcount within the Dream Games team, targeting 20 employees in year one.
Two Hat raises $7.5 million to grow AI content moderation platform
Two Hat Security, a Canadian technology company that provides AI-powered content moderation solutions, today announced it has raised $7.5 million in a new funding round led by Tam Holdings, an investment firm based in San Francisco. Also participating in the round are Makers Fund, a venture capital firm dedicated to supporting founders in interactive entertainment, and Taubman Capital, a private equity investment firm for the Taubman family.
Unit 2 Games secures $5m investment from Makers Fund
Unit 2 Games has closed an investment deal that will see $5 million poured into the UK studio. The finance comes from Makers Fund, a venture capital firm that has already invested in multiple games companies, including Seed developer Klang and Redhill Games, a new studio founded by the former CEO of Remedy.
Makers Fund leads $1.95M investment in Atomontage
Atomontage has raised $1.95 million in seed funding for its microvoxel technology, which you use with 3D simulation and graphics rendering. The investors included Makers Fund; Karl Magnus Troedsson, the former CEO of EA DICE; Tommy Palm, the CEO of Resolution Games; and Hilmar Pétursson, the CEO of CCP.
Rune raises $2M to help you find new friends in mobile games, starting with Brawl Stars
Rune, a company out of Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 class, wants to use AI to help you find the right people to play with, connecting you via voice chat. And they’ve just closed a $2 million seed round to get it done. The round was led by the gaming-focused firm Makers Fund, and backed by byFounders, E14 Fund, VentureSouq and Gmail creator Paul Buchheit.
Minion Masters developer BetaDwarf raises $6.6 million for ‘friendshipping’ games
BetaDwarf has raised $6.6 million in funding to make more “friendshipping games” that go beyond the bonds formed in its previous hit titles such Forced and Minion Masters. Makers Fund led the funding, with participation from seed investor London Venture Partners and new investors 1UP and Everblue.
Drivetime nabs $11M from Makers Fund, Amazon and Google to build voice-based games for drivers
Fully autonomous cars may (or may not) be just around the corner, but in the meantime, a startup that’s building in-car apps to help human drivers pass the time when behind the wheel has raised a round of funding. Drivetime — which makes voice-based trivia quizzes, games and interactive stories that people can play while driving — has raised $11 million in funding led by Makers Fund (a prolific investor in gaming startups), with participation from Amazon (via the Alexa Fund) and Google (via its Assistant investment program).
Looking to become the video-based social network of the gaming world, Medal.tv raises $9 million
When Medal.tv first launched on the scene, the company was an upstart trying to be the social network for the gaming generation. Since its debut in February, the clipping and messaging service for gamers has amassed 5 million total users with hundreds of thousands of daily active users. And now it has a $9 million new investment from firms, led by Horizons Ventures, the venture capital fund established by Hong Kong multi-billionaire Li Ka-shing.
VRChat Partners with HTC and Makers Fund to Close $10m Series C
The VRChat team is excited to announce that we have closed a $10m Series C investment round. This latest financing includes new investor Makers Fund, alongside existing investors HTC, Brightstone VC and GFR Fund. We welcome Makers Fund and are proud to have them on board!
Klang raises $22.3 million for MMO space colony simulation Seed
Klang has raised $22.33 million in funding to develop a massively multiplayer online space colony simulation called Seed. The Berlin-based game studio is making a large-scale, persistent virtual world, hoping to redefine the MMO landscape. Novator Partners, a global technology and health care investment firm, led the funding. Lego Ventures, the investment entity of the Lego brand, joined current investors in the round. Northzone, Neoteny, Firstminute Capital, Makers Fund, and New Life Ventures joined in the round. To date, the company has raised $37.42 Million for the project.
PORTFOLIO
Activ8
Activ8 is the pioneer and leading player ofthe virtual influencer market. Since its launch in 2016, Activ8 has transformed their first IP - Kizuna AI - into the top virtual idol in the world with 2M+ subs, ~200K+ average views for 400+ videos on YouTube, and an active fanbase within and beyond Japan, including the US, Europe, and China.
Atomontage
Atomontage is the creator of a breakthrough voxel technology that has been in R&D for more than 15 years and is expected to be commercially available in 2019. Once launched, its volumetric platform will streamline the capture, creation, editing, distribution, and consumption of all forms of interactive 3D computer graphics, vastly improving current experiences across countless applications. The team is comprised of software engineering, game development, visual computing, and medical industry veterans.
AviaGames
AviaGames is a mobile skill-based gaming company that’s based in the California Bay Area. AviaGames' vision is to create a top, competitive, global, social gaming platform that’s easy for everyone to play and have fun.
BetaDwarf
BetaDwarf is an ambitious company pushing the boundaries of co-op games to create lifelong friendships all around and across the world. Betadwarf is on a journey to becoming a front-runner in games that also attack a social epidemic: loneliness. Through a Kickstarter, a private bank loan, and perseverance, the team released FORCED in 2013, selling 500,000+ copies. Since then, Betadwarf has released SHOWDOWN and reached millions of players with Minion Masters, a full free-to-play title.
Bitstar
Bitstar is one of the leading influencer marketing firms in Asia, creating a comprehensive infrastructure to enable influencers to become more creative. In addition to agency and production services, Bitstar offers various new services and tools that cater to its clients’ needs, including a fan community platform for influencers and a discovery and information platform for advertisers.
Bossa Studios
Bossa Studios is a BAFTA-winning innovative studio with a long track-record of successful titles such as Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread. Known for industry-leading marketing and community management, Bossa is currently working on multiple titles.
Captain.tv
Captain.tv makes games for streamers to play live with their viewers on sites like Twitch. Their games and their platform offer streamers a new way to engage their community and create new revenue streams through in-game purchase revenue shares. Their current portfolio of games includes Stream Raiders, Chat Plays Chess, and Stream Pirates—with more titles in development.
ControlZee
Location
SAN JOSE, CA, USA
Founders
JON STOCKWELL, JACQUES MENUET, PORTER SCHUTZ, ROBERT ANDERBERG
Founded by veteran game developers Jon Stockwell, Jacques Menuet, Porter Schutz and Robert Anderberg, ControlZee believes that anyone should be able to make a video game. Controlzee is creating dot big bang to make that a reality. The unique platform enables people to play and create with friends anywhere on any device, instantly.
Dream Games
Location
ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Founders
SONER AYDEMIR, IKBAL NAMLI, HAKAN SAGLAM, EREN SENGUL, SERDAR YILMAZ
Dream Games is a mobile gaming company based in Istanbul. Their objective is to combine technology and creativity to develop high-quality mobile games that will be played for years.
DreamCraft
DreamCraft enables anyone to create, publish, and monetize video games. The company’s core product is a code-free game creation platform, bundled with high quality art assets. The company was founded in 2018 and now has a global team of 20+ people with half remote and half based in Silicon Valley.
END GAME INTERACTIVE
END GAME INTERACTIVE is a game development studio headquartered in Bellevue, WA. Their focus is on building cross-platform, real-time multiplayer games. Their past and current projects include ZombsRoyale.io, Spinz.io, Fate Arena, and Betrayal.io.
FACEIT
FACEIT is the largest online esports and matchmaking platform for CS:GO, Dota 2, and other multiplayer PvP games. FACEIT has already attracted eight million users, hosting 100K+ game tournaments and 12 million+ game sessions per month on its platform.
FRVR
FRVR specialises in “hyper-casual” HTML5 games that run in browsers on any device and can be ported to different platforms, including chat apps and app stores. The company’s biggest game, Basketball FRVR, has been played 5.6 billion times since its release in 2017.
Funtap
Funtap is a leading digital entertainment company in Vietnam and Southeast Asia focused on game publishing and digital content.
Gaggle
Location
LOS ANGELES, CA, USA AND TORONTO, CANADA
Founders
SIMON CHU, SHAWN FISCHTEIN, BEN GALLEGO, AND CHRISTOPHER GLOYD
Based in Toronto and LA, Gaggle Studios currently has a number of titles hosted on their platform at www.gaggle.fun. With a knack for bending the rules, they are able to find clever ways to produce content end-to-end at breakneck speeds. Their flagship title, Goose Goose Duck, a voice-chat integrated social deception game featuring ducks, is currently in early access on Steam and mobile and has attracted tens of thousands of simultaneous viewers on Twitch and players from all over the world.
Gameye
Location
ROTTERDAM AREA, NETHERLANDS
Founders
DENISE HELDEROP, ELMER BULTHUIS, RALPH HEERSINK, SEBASTIAAN HEIJNE
Gameye is developing deployment solutions for game servers, creating matchmaking capabilities across a global network. The technology innovator, based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, provides a powerful yet cost-efficient tool to deploy servers as close to the user as possible, which improves the game experience and keeps gamers at the forefront of the action.
Genvid
Genvid offers leading streaming middleware that enables viewers to interact with streams. Building on their long history in the gaming industry, Genvid has partnered with the industry's top studios and IPs to integrate their technology and create new player experiences.
Klang
Klang Games is a talented and highly creative game studio based in Berlin, founded by ex-CCP Games developers Oddur Magnússon, Ívar Emilsson, and creative Mundi Vondi. They are developing Seed, a next generation MMO game built on SpatialOS, providing unique gameplay combined with persistent mechanics and large-scale simulations.
Lava Games
Lava Games is building a social platform-shooter game called AFAR. AFAR is a social-first global game with an intricate economy, rewarding players that have fun as well as the community that engages in the AFAR world.
Lightheart Entertainment
Location
HELSINKI, FINLAND
Founders
KALLE KAIVOLA, CHRISTOPHE PARDON, MIKKO KAUTTO, MIIKKA AHONEN, JOUNI SUOMINEN
Lightheart is a team of veteran mobile game developers on a mission to change not only games but how they're made. They are pioneering Hypercore - the awesomely fun combination of the approachability of hyper-casual games and the engagement of mid-core games.
Medal
Location
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
Founders
PIM DE WITTE, JOSH LIPSON, IGGY HARMSEN, ZAID ELNASSER, PATRICK RIETBROEK
Medal is making capturing moments in the digital world as simple as capturing them in the real one. Through its platform, gamers can record gaming highlights and have them synced and shareable on their mobile devices instantly.
Midnite
Midnite is an esports betting platform built for the global esports community. With Midnite's trusted platform, fans can bet on their favorite teams safely and legally.
Mod.io
mod.io is a cross-platform user generated content (UGC) service for game studios to launch their own mod communities. It features moderation, discovery, metrics, and community building tools, managed by a unified dashboard, that is easily integrated in-game using APIs and SDKs built for Unity, Unreal and other game engines. mod.io is designed for the modern game that values control, flexibility, long-term user engagement and creator economies.
Multiverse
One More Multiverse is building a platform for storytellers, game masters, artists, roleplayers and worldbuilders to create and enjoy tabletop roleplaying games! OMM aims to 10x this classic genre by combining the creativity of an old-school pen and paper roleplaying experience, with immersive pixel art worlds, powerful creator tools, and approachable video game mechanics.
Parsec - Acquired by Unity
Parsec is on a mission to connect people and technology, enabling them to work, game, and share experiences from anywhere. Parsec is fine-tuned for the needs of games & gamers so that people can focus on the experiences they're sharing. Their proprietary, industry defining low latency, high-frame rate streaming technology and near-perfect input management makes it feel like you're in the same room, sharing the same screen. Parsec uses this technology to power a host of cross-platform applications and services that are used by a community of players, developers, and creatives.
Piepacker
Piepacker is a free multiplayer retro gaming platform, available on web browsers with no download and no installation needed. The platform also includes a video chat so users can see and talk to each other while playing. Under development since March 2020, Piepacker first opened a private beta version in December and is now available in open beta.
Popcore
Popcore is a fast-growing casual mobile game company with multiple hits launched, like Sandwich! and Wrecking Ball. Both founders, Thomas and Johannes Heinze, are experts in the mobile ads space who previously founded mobile advertising company moboqo and then led the international business of Applovin from 2014 to 2018.
Popdog
Location
LOS ANGELES, CA, USA
Founders
ALEXANDER GARFIELD, ANDREAS THORSTENSSON, COLIN DESHONG, NILES HERON
Popdog™ is a technology and services company focused on fixing core problems in the esports and live streaming industry. Popdog has something for everyone: players, teams, streamers, tournaments, publishers, agencies, and advertisers.
Ramen VR
Ramen VR is bringing the next reality to life with Zenith, a gorgeous anime / cyberpunk inspired VR MMO. Leading the efforts are Andy Tsen and Lauren Frazier, who bring decades of technical and product leadership experience from tech giants like Unity and Google. The studio is located in San Leandro, CA, with team members from all over the world.
RedHill Games
Location
HELSINKI, FINLAND
Founders
MATIAS MYLLYRINNE, MIKKO UROMO, MILOS JERABEK, KATYA DOLGOVA
Redhill Games is a free to play PC game studio formed by a team of industry veterans making accessible and high-quality games for a global audience. Redhill is currently working on Nine to Five, a tactical first-person shooter where smart teamwork triumphs over brute force and reflexes.
Roboto Games
Roboto Games' mission is to bring friends and family together with games that can be played anytime and anywhere. The team previously founded ZipZapPlay, a web and Facebook gaming company, which was sold to PopCap before it sold to EA in 2011. Since then, the founders have contributed to several other mobile game hits.
Rune
Rune helps mobile gamers find friends. A YC startup built by two MIT PhD dropouts, Rune began by asking a simple question: Can AI find you friends? Users have now spent more than 50,000 hours talking on voice chat and gaming with friends they met on Rune.
Savage Game Studios
Location
HELSINKI, FINLAND AND BERLIN, GERMANY
Founders
MICHAIL KATKOFF, MICHAEL MCMANUS, IAN BOWDEN, NADJIM ADJIR
Savage Game Studios out of Helsinki and Berlin has set their goal on bringing genre defining shooter games for touchscreen devices. The team is comprised of free-to-play and AAA veterans.
SuperData - Exited
Location
NEW YORK, NY, USA
Founders
JOOST VAN DREUNEN, JANELLE A. BENJAMIN
SuperData is the world’s leading provider of market intelligence for gaming. SuperData offers quantitative and qualitative insights on free-to-play games, digital console, mobile, PC downloadable, streaming media and gaming video content, eSports, and virtual reality.
Superplus Games
The maker of Hills of Steel games with over 36 million players worldwide, Superplus Games focuses on creating approachable yet deep realtime PvP experiences for mobile game market.
tinyBuild - IPO on London Stock Exchange's AIM Market
tinyBuild is a leading AA publisher with many successful titles, including No Time to Explain, SpeedRunners, and Punch Club. The company has built an extensive network with many rising developers in central and eastern Europe.
TSM
TSM is an esports team headquartered in Los Angeles, California, founded by CEO Andy Dinh in 2009. TSM began as a community website that published daily content for gamers and has become one of the most successful western esports teams. Over the last decade, the organization has grown exponentially, collecting over 40 million followers across its social media platforms, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Today, TSM has the largest presence in two of the largest games in the world, Fortnite and League of Legends, and has won multiple championships in sold out stadiums.
Two Hat Security
Two Hat’s AI-powered content moderation platform classifies, filters, and escalates more than 30 billion human interactions, including messages, usernames, images, and videos a month, all in real-time. With an emphasis on surfacing online harms including cyberbullying, abuse, hate speech, violent threats, and child exploitation, they enable clients across a variety of social networks to foster safe and healthy user experiences.
Typhoon Studios - Acquired by Google
Typhoon Studios is a Montreal based AA game studio, founded by well-known industry veterans from Ubisoft Montreal. The founders have directed and produced best-selling titles such as Far Cry 4, Assassin’s Creed III, and Batman: Arkham Knight.
Unit 2 Games
Based in Leamington Spa in the UK, Unit 2 Games seeks to make game development and publishing more accessible to players throughout the world using its UGC-powered, collaborative game creation and sharing platform Crayta. Founded by former Radiant Worlds and Blitz Games Studios COO, Richard Smithies, Unit 2 has a highly experienced team of nearly 40 people, many of whom have worked together for over a decade.
VRCHAT
VRChat is a social platform that enables users to create and share virtual worlds, avatars, and fully-interactive experiences with other users around the world. Since its founding in 2015, the platform has grown to millions of users and features a passionate community of creators who have published tens of millions of unique pieces of content. VRChat is officially headquartered in San Francisco but has no physical office — the entire team works remotely and collaborates using the platform. VRChat is available on Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, SteamVR, and Viveport; the platform supports cross-play between Quest, PC Desktop, and PC VR.
Wombat Studio
Wombat Studio is building the world’s first platform to empower everyone, not just professional artists, to create amazing 3D graphics and animation. Their first app, Magic Poser, helps artists / hobbyists create 3D scenes which can be used for art pieces or art reference. It received great traction on both Android and iOS, accumulating 2M+ downloads worldwide, 200K monthly active users, and 4.7 stars on the App Store. The team is now working towards a grander vision where everyone can be a creator in the future 3D world!
WinZO
Launched in 2018, WinZO is the largest vernacular gaming platform in India. The company partners with third party game studios to host their games on its app, creating a one stop shop experience for users, who can play 70+ games across several multiplayer formats with friends or strangers. The platform is available in 12 languages with over 25+ million registered users from Tier 2 – Tier 5 cities in India.
TEAM
![JAY CHI](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 450 250"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
JAY CHI
Global
Jay has worked in interactive entertainment for the last sixteen years as an industry advisor, focusing on helping early stage and large international firms with their strategies, investments and growth, working globally across Asia, North America, and Europe. A lifelong gamer and advocate for the industry, his passion is in supporting individuals and companies—large or small—who make positive contributions to the rapid growth of interactive entertainment.
MICHAEL CHEUNG
Europe
Michael spent the last decade helping companies grow and scale overseas in the interactive entertainment and consumer industries. An engineer at heart, he was a senior director at Tencent in China, where he led international live streaming. Before that he was a data scientist working with companies in the entertainment and consumer industries. In his earlier years, he cut his teeth in esports as a competitive Counter Strike player.
RYANN LAI
Americas
Ryann oversees investment and portfolio efforts in the Americas. He works closely with startup founders across all interactive entertainment verticals, providing support tailored to their needs, from day-to-day operations to product strategy. Prior to joining the Makers founding team, he worked as an investment banker, advising companies on fundraising and M&As transactions. A die-hard gamer, Ryann has a history of gaming binges and real-money trading in MMOs.
ALLI ÓTTARSSON
Americas & Europe
Originally from Iceland but currently operating on the west coast of North America, Alli engages with founders and supports portfolio companies across America and Europe. Alli spent his previous eighteen years deep in the trenches of PC online game development. He was part of the original team that shipped EVE Online and scaled up production for EVE and across CCP globally. Afterward, he joined Riot Games as the Development Director on League of Legends and later focused on production for Riot's subsequent games.
SOPHIA FENG
Global
Sophia leads our special projects and supports portfolio companies across the globe. She also works with founders in North and Latin America. Prior to Makers Fund, Sophia worked with US consumer tech companies on strategy. An avid consumer of compelling content across art, film, literature, gaming, and their intersections, she is passionate about championing their creators.
ARCHIE STONEHILL
Europe
Archie focuses on finding and supporting founders from across Europe. A truly passionate gamer with a diverse set of gaming interests, he enjoys working closely with founders on product and go-to-market strategies. Before joining Makers, he worked at McKinsey's private equity practice, advising investors on companies in the technology and gaming industries. Born and raised in London, he spent the last few years in America before moving back home in 2019.
ANDREW WILLSON
Americas
Andrew has experience investing in and supporting a wide variety of interactive media and technology companies, including publishers, mobile/PC/console developers, and technology platforms. He has deep experience with strategy, M&A, go-to-market, and organization topics. Andrew loves story- and art-driven console games and casual free-to-play mobile games. Andrew also loves outdoor adventures, especially in the snow.
ANDREA YANG
Asia & Europe
Andrea spends her time identifying potential investment opportunities across Asia and Europe, and provides extensive portfolio support to the partners. Before joining Makers, she specialized in growth equity investments across consumer sectors. Andrea enjoys a wide variety of games, from first person shooters to action RPGs, and has a special fondess for the survival genre.
CHAO ZEN
Japan & Asia
Chao has served the Tech and Media industry for the last 10 years; driven by his passion for creativity and innovation, he now dedicates most of his time in helping independent creators/developers around the world – from indies to AAA — realize their creative visions and grow their businesses. While Chao considers himself an “omnivorous” content consumer, he particularly enjoys carefully crafted interactive narratives.
ANNA SWEET
VENTURE PARTNER
Americas & Europe
Anna was part of the original business team at Valve that built the Steam platform and led gaming's transition to digital distribution. She spent 6 years leading platform growth, before joining Oculus to run content strategy for the launch of the Rift. Currently, she is the CEO of Bad Robot Games, focusing on the exciting intersection of gaming and linear entertainment. She's also a Venture Partner at Makers Fund, focused on helping portfolio companies across the globe to scale their businesses.
MATTHEW BALL
VENTURE PARTNER
Americas & Europe
Matthew is Managing Partner of Epyllion Industries, an incubation & advisory firm based in NYC. Matthew was previously Head of Strategy for Amazon Studios, where he oversaw billions a year in content spending globally and the company’s use of data in decision making. Before then, he was a VC at the Chernin Group’s Otter Media, and an executive in Accenture Strategy’s TMT practice. Matthew is a contributor at The Economist and holds bylines at New York Times, Bloomberg and more.
DONOVAN DUNCAN
ADVISOR
Global
Donovan has spent the last 20 years in the game media space as he built unique products and services for some of the largest game brands in the world. After serving as President of Curse, where he led projects like Gamepedia and DnDBeyond, he spent time as President of Fandom, where he helped drive the mission of serving creators at a massive scale. Donovan experienced two acquisitions, one by Twitch/Amazon of Curse and later an acquisition by Fandom of projects he ran under Twitch. A lifelong gamer and advocate for the community, creators, and UGC, Donovan supports game developers in his newest venture, publishing games. Donovan is an avid and lifelong gamer, and most enjoys grand strategy and city-builder-style games.
ED LU
ADVISOR
Global
Ed is a gaming and media executive with over a decade of operating experience at various gaming companies, covering PC MMO to the early phase of social and mobile free-to-play and interactive gaming platforms. He currently serves as the CFO at Fandom and advises ThatGameCompany, Duopeak and 5x5 Gaming. Ed is a lifelong gamer and is passionate about helping gaming entrepreneurs realize their vision through building strategy and scalable operations.
JOOST VAN DREUNEN
ADVISOR
Global
Joost is considered “the top academic in the $160 billion video games industry.” He teaches at the NYU Stern School of Business and is the author of One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games. Previously, Joost was co-founder and CEO of SuperData Research, a games market research firm acquired by Nielsen in 2018. He publishes a weekly newsletter on gaming, tech, and entertainment called SuperJoost Playlist.
REID SCHNEIDER
ADVISOR
Global
Reid was previously co-founder and Studio Head/EP at Typhoon Studios/Google. Prior to that, he was a co-founder of WB Games Montreal, where he served as the Executive Producer on Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Night. Reed's other past work includes EA's Army of Two and Army of Two: 40th Day, Battlefield Vietnam, and the original Splinter Cell.
RYAN PAYTON
ADVISOR
Global
Ryan is designer and founder of Camouflaj, a Seattle based game studio best known for the multiplatform hit, République. Ryan’s career in gaming began as a freelance writer for Ziff-Davis and WIRED magazine, which led him to join Konami in Tokyo. Upon shipping Metal Gear Solid 4, Ryan moved to Seattle to join Microsoft as creative director on Halo 4. In addition to Makers Fund, Ryan is an official advisor to Fumito Ueda (The Last Guardian), Yu Suzuki (Shenmue III), and Swery (The Good Life).
ALICE CHEUNG
FUND OPERATIONS
Global
Alice is Makers’ office manager and an executive assistant. She is the team’s first line of defense for all matters. Alice also handles HR management and streamlines day to day operations.
VICKI LEE
FUND OPERATIONS
Global
Vicki is the Finance Manager for Makers. She has over 10 years of experience in the fund industry, which includes hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, investment products, fund formation & corporate governance. She is a HKICPA & CFA.
COLLIN WONG
FUND OPERATIONS
Global
Collin is Makers’ Legal Counsel. He has over 10 years of experience in the industry, spanning across private equity, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, investment fund formation, governance, and general corporate law. He regularly works with US, European, and Asian investors. Collin is a gaming enthusiast, particularly for games involving team strategy.
SHERMAIN FUNG
FUND OPERATIONS
Global
Shermain is an Executive Assistant at Makers and also supports the team on HR management. Prior to joining, Shermain worked in the investment banking space for over 10 years.