From the cold shores of Iceland and Finland (Mainframe, Supercell) to the bustling Bazaar's of Istanbul (Peak Games), Europe is home to the present and future of global video games.
It's no secret that Europe has led the charge on global Video Game (especially mobile) development. Since the real emergence of Video Games in the 90's, roughly over $3.5bn of Venture Capital has been invested in the industry. As is true with most things in life, success breeds success, and on that basis Europe still has a long way to go.
If you are the founder in the games space or wondering who you should speak to when it comes to raising from European Games VC's, then we've got you covered.
The following list outlines the most active investors in European Games Companies. The funds can be domiciled anywhere, but this list looks at who has been most active in Europe.
#10 - Northzone
Northzone is one of Europe's best known VC firms having backed continental Unicorns such as Spotify, Klarna and Hopin. They are an early-stage fund who has been increasingly active across games, and should be on many founders list of funds to talk to in the industry.
Offices: London, Stockholm & New York.
Investment Stage: Typically Series-A investors, but occasionally investing earlier at the Seed Stage.
# of European Games Investments: 5
Notable Games Portfolio: Kahoot!, Klang Games and Space Ape.
#9 - Initial Capital
Initial Capital has been consistently strong when it comes to games investments, having backed Supercell at the Seed & Series A stage. So far in 2021 the fund has been a little quieter and generally appear lower volume than some of the other games investors in Europe.
Offices: London
Investment Stage: Predominantly Seed/Series-A
# of European Games Investments: 7
Notable Games Portfolio: Supercell and Ape Games.
#8 - Tencent
Tencent are one of the most iconic technology companies in the Games & Entertainment sector globally. Founded in China in 1998, it has quickly risen to become the worlds largest video game vendor and taken majority holdings in companies such as Riot Games, Supercell, Epic Games, Fatshark and more.
Offices: Singapore, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Palo Alto, Seoul, HongKong, Bangkok.
Investment Stage: Typically Series-B onwards.
# of European Games Investments: 7
Notable Games Portfolio: Supercell, Fatshark, Plain Vanilla and many more.
#7 - Creandum
Creandum have been increasingly active across the continent. Best known for their seed investment in Spotify, the firm are certainly making mark name in the games sector with three exits to their name (so far) in Kahoot!, Peak and PlayRaven.
Offices: Stockholm, Berlin and San Fransisco.
Investment Stage: Seed, Series-A and beyond.
# of European Games Investments: 7
Notable Games Portfolio: Kahoot!, Blast, Resolution Games and more.
#6 - BITKRAFT Ventures
Bitkraft have e-sports and games in their DNA through founding partners Jens Hilgers, Malte Barth and Scott Rupp. Distributed across Europe and the US, the firm has been increasingly active within Europe, leading large Seed and Series-A rounds.
Offices: LA and San Fransisco.
Investment Stage: Seed and beyond.
# of European Games Investments: 8
Notable Games Portfolio: Bayes, Vertias and more.
#5 - Accel
Accel is one of the most active and successful Venture Investors globally, having made over 1,500+ investments globally to-date and famously part of Facebook's Series-A. Given their established European activity, it is no surprise that they have been active in the Games space over the last few decades and backed some of the leading names in the industry over that period.
Offices: London, San Fransisco and Bangalore.
Investment Stage: Multi-stage
# of European Games Investments: 8
Notable Games Portfolio: Rovio, FlareGames, Sorare and others.
#4 - Index Ventures
Index Ventures is another of the planets most well recognised Venture investors. They have had a number of high profile games companies such as Supercell, Dream Games and FaceIT.
Offices: London, San Fransisco and Geneva.
Investment Stage: Multi-stage
# of European Games Investments: 10
Notable Games Portfolio: Metacore & Supercell
#3 - Play Ventures
Play Ventures is the self proclaimed "leading early stage gaming VC". Since their founding in 2018 they have backed some of the most exciting up-and-coming games companies globally.
Offices: Singapore and Helsinki.
Investment Stage: Pre-seed & Seed
# of European Games Investments: 11+
Notable Games Portfolio: Metacore & Supercell
#2 - LVP
London Venture Partners is the original European pure-games VC founded in 2010. Their partners all have extensive operating experience, with David Gardner having established EA's European endeavours.
Offices: London.
Investment Stage: Angel, Pre-seed & Seed
# of European Games Investments: 12+
Notable Games Portfolio: Supercell, Peak, Klang Games and more.
#1 - Makers Fund
Makers Fund was founded in 2018, centred around the accelerated growth of interactive entertainment globally. Since then they have topped the leaderboards of European games activity, backing the most promising games and entertainment startups from pre-seed and beyond. Matthew Ball is a Venture Partner there, famed for his blog covering all things media and entertainment.
Offices: Globally distributed.
Investment Stage: Pre-seed, Seed, Series-A.
# of European Games Investments: 16+
Notable Games Portfolio: Dream Games, Bossa Studios, Klang Games and more.
RLC Ventures
RLC Ventures is a more recent entrant to the European Games market, backing UK games companies at the pre-seed and seed stage. Their stage-focused offering helps founders through the first 12-18 months of their journey, centred around coaching support and founder wellbeing. If you are a games founder raising a pre-seed or seed round, please apply for investment here.
Offices: London.
Investment Stage: Pre-seed &Seed.
# of European Games Investments: 4+
Notable Games Portfolio: Condense Reality, Included Games and Labworks.
Article courtesy of RLC Ventures
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