Vgames raises $142 million for its third gaming fund

Vgames has raised $142 million for its third fund to continue investing in talented gaming teams around the world.

Led by Eitan Reisel and Daniel Mironov, the fund (which spells its name Vgames) will invest in game studios at various stages, supporting talented founders and supporting them as they grow.

“The third fund is super exciting because it was just an idea five years ago,” said Reisel, managing director, in an interview with GamesBeat.

The previous means were 60 million dollars in 2020 and 141 million dollars in 2021

“We are proud to be among the leading gaming investors globally. We are privileged to support talented founders from early days to later stages. Vgames leads early-stage investments in companies while also leading mega rounds in some of its portfolio,” Reisel said.

Since the launch of Vgames in March 2020. the fund has invested in 38 companies globally, making it one of the most active gaming funds in the world. It also invests in “gamification” deals.

“We’re at the top of the productivity charts,” Reisel said.

Notable investments include InnPlay Labs (acquired by Playtika for up to $300 million), SuperPlay (acquired by Playtika for up to $1.95 billion), 1047 Games, Candivore (top ten grossing Match 3 games globally), GOAT (former founders of Plarium), Elyzio, 44 ​​Pixels and AMP among others. Exit numbers are in the billions of dollars.

“From day one, we aimed to be a founder-centric fund. My belief is that the more support our founders have, the better off we are,” Reisel said. “I am very confident in the model we have built and proud to support top entrepreneurs globally, from Israel, Middle East, Europe, USA and soon other parts of the globe. Our founders are our success,” Reisel said.

Vgames is proud to be a dedicated investment team including Mironov; Reisel; David Digmi, Chief Operating Officer; and Ricky Papa Pnini, IR and Marketing Head.

“We’re still very much focused on the consumer,” Reisel said. “Content creation, most of which is in game studios. The strategy is very similar to funding one and two. We’re happy with it, so why change it?’

All team members have active roles in the investments and portfolio. This intimate, hands-on team enables the fund to quickly execute decisions while maintaining investor-entrepreneur relationships of trust. The fund is also stage agnostic, it invests in very early days of the company all the way to A and growth rounds.

Reisel said cross-platform gaming has arrived in a big way, and it works well to launch games on multiple platforms, including PC, console and mobile.

Asked about investments in blockchain gaming or the metaverse or AI, Reisel said the firm doesn’t believe in those trends. He thinks of crypto as a place to trade, not a place to play games.

“I think he was too aggressive in terms of how he landed on the market. We are yet to see those intersections, but I think it will take time. As a fund, we took very, very few positions,” Reisel said. “You won’t see big crypto names on our list. We are very disciplined in creating content. I don’t think it’s technology. It’s more the type of content you play. We always want to invest in games that we believe can appeal to a mass market.”

Raisel said he doesn’t think artificial intelligence will replace game developers anytime soon. He sees great value in casual and mid-game, art, narrative design, and level design when it comes to human abilities. But he believes AI will help reduce production costs.

“Maybe if you need to put 10 trees on a map, you can do them with AI,” he said.

The fund recently led an undisclosed $50 million round in one of its portfolio companies. Among the support the fund provides is non-dilutive financing for growth companies as an alternative to equity capital – a win-win for founders and investors alike.

“We invest in teams, content and believe in a data-driven approach,” Mironov, partner and games expert at Vgames, said in a statement. “Depending on the stage of the company, we analyze the genre, metrics if applicable and growth opportunity and guide our investment decisions based on that. We are looking for the strongest teams who are not afraid to think big and tackle the possibilities of the Red Ocean. We often get asked if we invest in mobile/PC/consoles.”

Mironov added: “Our answer is consistent: we have a content-first approach. So as long as players are enjoying the game, as long as there is a strong business model to support it and as long as there is great potential, we would like to explore.”

Vgames intends to maintain the same investment cadence and deploy capital rapidly to expand its portfolio and support its existing portfolio.

Among the investments, Reisel is optimistic about 1047 Games and the upcoming May launch of Splitgate 2. Reisel said he sees companies like 1047 Games benefiting from remote work.

Vgames expects to hire its first investor outside of Israel, although the fund is a global investor with companies in Europe, India, Turkey and the Middle East.

“We’re here to expand if we find opportunities that we can take forward,” Reisel said.

There were times when the firm made investments every month, he said. He said he hoped the situation in Israel would improve.

“I live in Israel,” he said. “I have to be optimistic.”

And he said he’s optimistic that people will continue to play games.

“The number of people worldwide is only increasing. Connectivity is growing. I think the fact that games today can run on lower-end devices in tier-three countries — that’s very important,” Reisel said. “We focus a lot on that with our portfolio companies,” he said. “Games can be accessed on any device. We’re seeing a lot of innovation in companies and IP owners will still run the show for many years to come.”