The Games Fund

History

2021

Investing in KEK Entertainment Gaming Studio

On November 1, 2021, it was announced that $3 million was invested in KEK Entertainment. The Games Fund and Play Ventures funds were invested in a game studio located in Moscow  as part of the pre-seed round. What time investors estimated the startup, not reported. More details here.

Attracting $17 million of investments

On August 6, 2021, The Games Fund announced the raising of $17 million from the gaming companies Scopely (USA) and Com2us (South Korea). This is the second round for a fund founded by Russians specializing in investing in video game developers. By autumn, it is planned to raise a total of $50 million.

Earlier in the summer of 2021, The Games Fund announced the first deals. The fund invested $2.4 million in four small studios: Kharkov Jarvi Games, Mogilev Vandrouka Games, Minsk Purple Games and St. Petersburg Hypemasters.

More than five thousand gaming companies are located in Eastern Europe. Games created here often appear in rating tops. Despite this, the region is considered opaque to foreign investors and lacks neutral venture capital without additional burdens, "said Ilya Yeremeev, co-founder of The Games Fund.

The Games Fund of former top managers of the Mail.ru Group raised $17 million for investments in game projects

Scopely noted that the video game market has become as active and innovative as ever, so the company is pleased to collaborate with The Games Fund "in providing financial resources to support game developers and discover new horizons."

Just as leading Asian companies arose, we see the rise of amazing talents in the Eastern European region, and we believe that we can contribute and accelerate their growth thanks to our participation in The Games Fund, "said Kyu Lee, President of GAMEVIL Com2us USA. Com2us specializes in creating mobile and online games.

The Games Fund positions itself as an early stage venture fund. One of his main focuses is companies from Eastern Europe.

Earlier, Ilya Yeremeev said that the fund has no strategic interests (he is not interested in gaining control, takeover, rebranding, influencing the product strategy, and so on), and the main goal is to help grow the company and sell it as much as possible.

Launch of a $50 million fund for investments in game developers

In mid-April 2021, it became known about the creation of the $50 million venture fund The Games Fund. It will focus on investing in game developers in the early stages of business development.

The founders of the fund, former managers of the investment fund Mail.ru Games Ventures (renamed MY.GAMES Venture Capital, MGVC) Maria Kochmola and Ilya Yeremeev, told Forbes magazine about the creation of The Games Fund.

According to the latter, The Games Fund will invest up to $2 million in pre-seed and Round A stage projects, as well as up to $5 million in portfolio companies in later stages in syndicates with other investors. By the time of launch, the fund had already invested $500 thousand in the Belarusian mobile studio Purple Games, several more transactions are at the final stage, Yeremeev said.

Ex-employees of Mail.ru Group launch The Games Fund for $50 million for investments in game developers

The fund allows international investors to participate in the development of one of the most rapidly developing industries in the world and offers unique access to a large but inaccessible market for game developers from Eastern Europe, with more than 5 thousand companies, The Games Fund emphasized.

The Games Fund was invested by the founder of the LVL1 fund Lev Leviyev, the founders of the developers of the games Plarium and Deus Craft, as well as the investment bank Area, Forbes points out. The founders explained that they initially planned to raise a fund of $30 million, but "underestimated interest."

Now we are close to raising $50 million and are still ready to accept new investors, but we plan to close fundraising by the end of the summer, "said Maria Kochmola.

The advisers to the fund of ex-employees of the Mail.ru Group included the founder of Fort Ross Ventt Viktor Orlovsky, the head of Vorhaus Advisors Mike Vorhaus, the founder of Altair Capitals Igor Ryabenky and the managing director of MY.GAMES Venture Capital Ilya Karpinsky. They will be able to recommend promising startups to the new organization, which cannot enter their own investment portfolios.^[1]

Notes