Play Ventures, a global venture capital firm specializing in early-stage gaming, has raised $140 million for its third gaming fund.
This fund represents Singapore-based Play Ventures’ largest fund to date and brings its total assets under management to $450 million. Coming at this time, the new fund is important for the gaming industry, which has had a tough 2.5 years with 33,000 layoffs during that time.
The fund’s close was driven by strong support from a core group of returning investors, including university endowments, strategic partners in the gaming sector, and prominent global family offices as well as new investors backing the firm’s thesis.
Fund III will build upon Play Ventures’ successful strategy of investing in early-stage companies across the gaming ecosystem, with a focus on mobile free-to-play, mobile consumer, gaming infrastructure and platforms, AI-enhanced gaming tools, and next-generation distribution channels.
Since the fund’s initial close in June 2023, the fund has already made eight investments, including investing in experienced founders with prior exits, underscoring the strength of Play Ventures’ approach and deal sourcing.
“Software may have eaten the world, but mobile has swallowed our time whole. People now live on their phones — spending hours a day engaging with social media, apps, and, most notably, games,” said Henric Suuronen, founding partner at Play Ventures, in a statement. “Mobile gaming is one of the most dynamic arenas of our time, presenting massive, untapped potential. With Fund III, we’re investing in a new wave of billion-dollar games and interactive experiences, supercharged by the transformative power of AI.”
Fund III will also have an expanded focus to “playable apps”—consumer applications that apply the best of the free-to-play gaming playbook to create captivating, interactive user experiences across multiple consumer verticals.
“Integrating gaming mechanics into everyday apps is just the first step. There’s a ton of user engagement and value that can be unlocked by taking learnings from the entire f2p gaming playbook that has been perfected over decades, including meta design, live ops, economy design, and monetization”, said Phylicia Koh, Partner at Play Ventures. “Our playable apps investments in Arya, Ahead, Benjamin and Bible Chat are testaments of how this approach can drive significant growth and reshape user experiences.”
Most recently, Fund III invested in AI-startup Beyond, founded by Huuuge Games founder Anton Gauffin, developing their first consumer product Decor Society.
I asked Harri Manninen, cofounder of Play Ventures, about the importance of raising this fund in the context of so many layoffs in gaming.
“The gaming industry has always been extremely fast moving and dynamic,” Manninen said. “While the recent period of slower growth and economic pressure has certainly impacted gaming companies, the gaming ecosystem continues to evolve and present new opportunities in areas like user-generated content (UGC) platforms, AI-powered tools and development, emerging global markets and also playable consumer apps. These can be seen as an entirely new class of growth opportunities.”
Manninen added, “We believe that the best founders see these periods of uncertainty as an opportunity to build the next generation of great game companies. Many of the biggest gaming companies of today were founded during times of market downturn and gloom. With Fund III, we are committed to supporting these brave founders who are creating new business, regardless of market sentiment. It’s an exciting time to invest in new gaming startups and technologies and help drive the industry forward.”
And he said, “My hope is that the new gaming companies of tomorrow will grow into big successes that will be able to hire many of the top talent that have unfortunately lost their jobs in the gaming industry recently. With new growth companies there’s always demand to hire new people and top talent.”
Play Ventures anticipates deploying Fund III across 20 to 25 companies globally, focusing on early-stage investments from pre-seed to Series A, while reserving capital to support the highest-performing portfolio companies as they grow.
With Fund III, Play Ventures is excited to partner with founders who are redefining the gaming landscape and building the next generation of interactive experiences.
Play Ventures was founded in 2018, and it has offices in Singapore and Helsinki. For the first fund, Play Ventures raised $30 million in 2018 and for the second it raised $135 million in 2021.
The team includes Suuronen, Harri Manninen, and general partners Kenrick Drijkoningen, Phylicia Koh, and Anton Backman.
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