Investment news — digest for February 16-23
All the gaming deals for the past week in one material.
The material was prepared specifically for App2Top.ru Sergey Evdokimov, Investment Manager Mail.Ru Games Ventures and the author of the telegram channel Gaming – M&As and Investments.
Sergey Evdokimov1. HQ Trivia has found a new buyer
In mid-February, the developer of the mobile game quiz with real cash prizes HQ Trivia was on the verge of bankruptcy. Last week, after several attempts, CEO Rus Yusupov still managed to find a new buyer. The amount of the new transaction is not reported. In March 2018, the company raised $15 million out of a company-wide valuation of $100 million.
2. Konstantin Sakhnov acquired 30% of Justforward Studio
The Moscow studio of hyper-casual games Justforward attracted investments from Konstantin Sakhnov, a teacher at the HSE. As part of the transaction, the investor will receive 30% of the shares and undertakes to help with attracting new projects. It is not known how much the deal cost Sakhnov.
3. Embracer Group became the owner of Saber Interactive
The Swedish game holding Embracer Group acquires the assets of the American developer and publisher of video games Saber Interactive (authors of World War Z). The total value of the transaction may amount to $525 million. Most of the remuneration is subject to vesting over the next 3-6 years and depends on the fulfillment of a number of conditions.
4. Koch Media became the owner of Voxler
The German media corporation Koch Media, a subsidiary of the Swedish game holding Embracer Group, announced the acquisition of the French karaoke game developer Voxler for $ 2 million, known for the Let’s Sing series of games, the publisher and distributor of which was Koch Media.
5. Starbreeze has raised money from institutional investors
The developer and publisher of Starbreeze games has raised $5.2 million in financing by issuing new shares on the stock exchange for local institutional investors (one of the largest banks in Sweden, Swedbank Robur, and the state AP fund). Upon completion of the transaction, investors will receive 9.1% of Starbreeze shares and 29% of voting rights.
6. Croquet Corporation received money from the SIP Global Partners venture fund
Los Angeles-based Croquet has raised $2.7 million in seed funding to develop a platform that allows real-time simultaneous work on the creation of applications and AR games.
7. Tempo Storm raised money for game development
The American esports organization Tempo Storm, specializing primarily in CCG (Hearthstone and Shadowverse), has raised $3.3 million in funding to launch its own card game based on blockchain technology – The Bazaar. The investor was Galaxy Interactive, which invests in digital entertainment interactive (its fund is $325 million).
