Investment news – digest for March 16-22

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. Developer Bazooka Tango has attracted $2.5 million in seed investments

California-based mobile game developer Bazooka Tango has raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round. The release of the studio’s debut project 3vs3 MOBA game Vainglory All-Stars is scheduled for this spring. The lead investor in the transaction was the Bitkraft Esports Ventures profile fund, MTG and Mergelane also took part in the round.

Bazooka Tango was created by Bo Daly, one of the four founders of Super Evil Megacorp., and Stephan Sherman, who was responsible for the Vainglory game design. Super Evil Megacorp. in total, it has raised more than $70 million.

2. Publisher Miniclip acquired mobile studio Eight Pixels Square

The Swiss video game publisher Miniclip has acquired a controlling stake in the British mobile game developer Eight Pixels Square, the authors of the mobile hit Sniper Strike: Special Ops (more than 35 million downloads). The seller of the deal was a major mobile developer Outplay Entertainment, which acquired Eight Pixels Square in December 2016.

This is the second Miniclip deal in 2020. In January, the company acquired the Israeli developer of mobile casual games Ilyon Games for $ 100 million. Recall that Miniclip itself (more precisely, its controlling stake) was acquired by Tencent in 2015.

3. The developer of technologies for streaming interactive game broadcasts Genvid Technologies has attracted an additional $ 6 million

American startup Genvid Technologies has increased the amount of the last round of Series B financing by $ 6 million. Additional investments were made by strategic investors NTT Docomo Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Huya. The total amount of the last round was $33 million, the valuation of the entire company is not disclosed.

In total, since its foundation in 2016, the company has raised about $53 million. Genvid Technologies has already attracted investments four times before.

4. The Sandbox blockchain game attracted $2 million of investment

The developer of the blockchain game TSB Gaming (daughter of Animoca Brands) raised more than $ 2 million for the 3rd quarter of 2019, of which $1.7 million — cash (SAFE) and $ 0.3 million – digital assets (SAND tokens). The investors were Square Enix, B Cryptos, Mindfulness Capital and True Global Ventures.

5. The developer of a cross-platform MMO game for cloud services, Mainframe Industries, attracted €7.6 million in investments

Finnish game studio Mainframe Industries has raised €7.6 million during a Series A funding round to develop an MMO game for cloud services based on the Unreal Engine. The lead investor in the transaction was the Andreessen Horowitz venture fund with the participation of seed round investors and a new strategic investor Riot Games.

Earlier, the studio attracted €2 million seed investments from Play Ventures, Maki.vc , Sisu Game Ventures and Crowberry Capital. In total, the studio has attracted more than €9.5 million in funding. The release date of the first project is unknown.

6. American mobile game developer Robin Games has attracted $7 million in seed investments

California-based studio Robin Games has raised $7 million in funding to develop lifestyle games for a female audience. The lead investor in the transaction was the LVP profile venture fund with the participation of venture funds 1Up Ventures, Alpha Edison, Everblue Management, Firstminute Capital, Greycroft Tracker Fund, Hearst Ventures and Third Kind Venture Capital.

Initially, the studio planned to attract $ 5 million in seed investments, but due to increased demand, the amount of financing was increased to $ 7 million.

7. Scopely has attracted an additional $200 million of investment at an estimated $1.7 billion

The American developer and publisher of mobile games Scopely increased the amount of investments by $200 million according to a pre-money estimate of $1.7 billion during the Series D funding round announced in October 2019. The total amount of attracted investments of Round D will be $400 million.

The new funding came from the media company Advance and The Chernin Group investment fund. Scopely is going to scale its business with investments: the company has several acquisitions in its plans, as well as the purchase of IP. Previously, the American company has already made major purchases. For example, in January 2020, Scopely acquired FoxNextGames, spending about $250 million.

8. Amuka Esports acquired Incendium Gaming, the organizer of esports tournaments

Canadian esports company Amuka Esports has acquired a 100% stake in Incendium Gaming, the leading organizer of fighting game tournaments. Since its foundation in 2019, Incendium Gaming has held more than 20 of its own events (including Tekken 7 and Dragon Ball FighterZ) and organized custom tournaments (GOML, World Gaming).

Amuka Esports, founded in 2019, is rapidly developing, absorbing small teams. Earlier in February 2020, Amuka Esports acquired Waves eGaming, a specialized platform for esports tournaments in Canada.