Investment news – digest for March 9-15

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. DDM acquired an investment information platform from Digi-Capital

The international consulting agency for business development in the video game and digital entertainment industry Digital Development Management (DDM) announced the acquisition of an analytical investment platform for the gaming industry from the BI-consultant Digi Capital. The platform was named DDM Games Investment Review. It will allow DDM clients to monitor the situation in the game dev investment market.

2. Developer Owlcat Games has raised more than $2 million on the Kickstarter platform

Owlcat Games, an isometric RPG developer, raised more than $2 million during a Kickstarter campaign. The new project Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous enjoys great interest from the gaming community. The studio received the support of about 35 thousand backers.

3. Custom Modification Service mod.io attracted $1 million of investments

An Australian developer of a platform for hosting and creating custom game mods mod.io attracted $1 million of seed investments. The lead investor was the profile venture fund Play Ventures.

4. Indie developer Lince Works has attracted $3.4 million investment

Spanish studio Lince Works has raised $3.4 million to create a new multiplatform game, which is expected to be released in 2021. The lead investor in the deal was the Game Seer profile venture fund, the Catalan authorities also participated in the round. Previously, the developer released a successful indie stealth adventure game from the third person Aragami, which sold 500 thousand copies.

5. Unity acquired the developer of the AI platform Artomatix

American Unity Technologies has acquired the Dublin-based startup Artomatix, specializing in creating an AI platform for game developers. The platform’s toolkit helps 3D artists prepare content faster. All thanks to algorithms that generate thousands of images based on the original design and the set parameters. According to IrishTimes, the transaction value was $60 million.

6. Epic Games has acquired a studio for creating facial animation Cubic Motion

Epic Games has acquired the British studio Cubic Motion, which develops technologies for realistic depiction and animation of people in video games.
Cubic Motion Studio will work together with Serbian 3Lateral, which is engaged in animations in AAA video games (it came under the control of Epic Games in early 2019). Both studios will continue to develop technologies for Unreal Engine — while planning to make the tools available for mass use.

7. Back-end developer Pragma raised $4.2 million in the seed round

California-based Pragma studio, offering back-end tools for creating online games, “raised” $4.2 million in seed investments. Currently, the Pragma platform is under development, and the launch of beta testing is scheduled for the end of 2020. The lead investor in the transaction was Upfront Ventures with the participation of Advancit Capital and several business angels.

8. Gaming outsourcer Amber absorbed the Romanian developer Scorpius Games

A large Romanian gaming outsourcer Amber has absorbed the indie studio Scorpius Games, specializing in the development of RTS and RPG titles on Unreal Engine. The deal brought Amber ten Scorpius developers (in addition to a staff of 450 people) and a PC shooter PositronX.

9. Modulate, a developer of voice solutions for video games, has attracted $4 million in seed investments

The American developer of voice modulation software for video game avatars based on machine learning Modulate raised $4 million in the seed round. The main investors in the transaction were venture funds 2enable Partners and Hyperplane Venture Capital, participating in the previous round of financing for $ 2 million in February 2019. In the first round of financing in 2019, the post-money estimate was $8 million, the estimate of the second round is not disclosed.

10. Social game developer Toya in search of investment

The Israeli studio Toya, which develops social games for girls on the Roblox platform, has launched a new round of fundraising. In 2018 and 2019, the studio attracted $2 million in investments and released two successful games — My Farm and My Cat Box. Today, the company employs about 20 contractors and employees in Tel Aviv, 80% of them are women.