Investment News – digest from June 15 to 21

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 Evdokimov

1. Epic Games invested $750 million

The American gaming giant Epic Games raised $0.75 billion, bringing the company’s value to $17 billion. This is how the company’s estimated coefficients look now: EV/Revenue’19 = 4.0x and EV/EBITDA’19 = 23.0x.

Most likely, Epic Games will spend the collected money on business development through further investments in human capital (M&A) and attracting new content to its game store.

Fortnite by Epic Games

2. The Swedish Stillfront Group has raised more than $126 million

Swedish publisher Stillfront Group has raised $126.6 million with the help of an additional issue of shares by closed subscription for Swedish foreign investors. The company plans to use the funds received for future acquisitions and further business development.

Stillfront has also been actively absorbing developers and other publishers in recent years. These include Kixeye, Storm8, Candywriter, etc.

Stillfront owns the studio that created Unravel

3. Grishin Robotics has created a new fund for $ 100 million

Headed by a co-founder Mail.Ru With Dmitry Grishin, the American venture fund Grishin Robotics presented its new fund of $100 million.

The foundation’s focus will not be on robotics and IT, which are familiar to the company, but on new industries, such as online games and interactive entertainment.

Dmitry Grishin

4. Backers invested $300 million in Star Citizen

Los Angeles-based studio Cloud Imperium Games has raised more than $300 million through crowdfunding to develop its Star Citizen space simulator. The developers were supported by more than 2.7 million people, the average donation amount was $ 110.

In the end, the company managed to raise more than $360 million through investments ($63 million) and crowdfunding (more than $300 million). The last major transfer of money to the project took place in March of this year. Both players and former Cloud Imperium developers are gradually losing faith in the release of the game.

Kosmosim-long-term Star Citizen

5. Zynga has opened a foundation for charity

The American developer company Zynga has announced its new fund of $25 million. Zynga plans to spend this amount over five years on educational and charitable initiatives. The main goal of the presented fund is the development of social diversity and integration in the video game industry.

6. $7 million was invested in the Admix advertising platform

Admix, a London-based in-game advertising platform, raised $7 million during a Series A funding round. Force Over Mass acted as a potential investor. Admix currently cooperates with more than 200 developers, and the number of advertising companies organized by the company exceeds 500.

Image from the official Admix website

7. DMarket blockchain platform raised $6.5 million

DMarket, an online platform for trading and exchanging in-game items based on blockchain technology, managed to raise $6.5 million. Almaz Capital was the leading investor, and Xsolla also invested funds.

The investment will be used to attract talented engineers and managers, as well as to further develop the decentralized platform. In total, the service has attracted more than $40 million.

DMarket

8. Mission Control esports startup was funded for $1.75 million

Mission Control, an American platform for creating esports leagues, received $1.75 million from anonymous angel investors.

9. American City invested $1.2 million in indie publisher Whitethorn Digital

The American publisher of independent games Whitethorn Digital received $ 1.2 million investment from Erie Insurance’s Opportunity Zone Fund — the fund of the American city of Erie. The organization finances enterprises that are important for the development of the local economy.

Whitethorn Digital plans to spend these funds on office improvement and attracting employees.

Erie is located in Pennsylvania

10. Outsourcer iLLOGIKA Studios raised $1.1 million for its own titles

Canadian studio iLLOGIKA Studios, engaged in multiplatform development and outsourcing, raised $ 1.1 million with the help of BDC Capital. These investments do not dilute the equity. They are used to create two new games.

The company participated in the development of the Cuphead platformer from StudioMDHR Entertainment

11. The Romanian game design platform attracted $650 thousand seed investments

The Romanian browser platform for game designers Machinations raised $650 thousand during the seed round of financing. The money will be used for further development of the site. The lead investor in the transaction was the non-profit GapMinder foundation.

Machinations Tool

12. The mobile game Fish Tanks was funded for $ 310 thousand

The British developer SockMonkey Studios received an investment of $310 thousand from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund. The company uses the raised funds to launch Fish Tanks, its first original game. It is planned to be released in the summer on all major platforms.

Fish Tanks