Venturebeat revealed that Play Ventures, a global venture capital firm specializing in early-stage gaming, has raised $140 million for its third gaming fund.
The fund’s successful close was backed by a strong group of returning investors, including university endowments, strategic partners from the gaming industry, and prominent global family offices, along with new investors who support Play Ventures’ investment vision.
Fund III will concentrate on early-stage investments in mobile free-to-play games, mobile consumer applications, gaming infrastructure, AI-powered gaming tools, and next-generation distribution channels, building on Play Ventures’ proven investment approach.
Fund III will expand its focus to include “playable apps,” which leverage free-to-play gaming strategies to create interactive consumer experiences across various sectors.
Statements from Play Ventures
“Software may have eaten the world, but mobile has swallowed our time whole. People now live on their phones — spending hours a day engaging with social media, apps, and, most notably, games.”
Henric Suuronen, Founding Partner at Play Ventures
“Integrating gaming mechanics into everyday apps is just the first step. There’s a ton of user engagement and value that can be unlocked by taking learnings from the entire f2p gaming playbook that has been perfected over decades, including meta design, live ops, economy design, and monetization.”
Phylicia Koh, Partner at Play Ventures
“The gaming industry has always been extremely fast moving and dynamic.
While the recent period of slower growth and economic pressure has certainly impacted gaming companies, the gaming ecosystem continues to evolve and present new opportunities in areas like user-generated content (UGC) platforms, AI-powered tools and development, emerging global markets and also playable consumer apps. These can be seen as an entirely new class of growth opportunities.
My hope is that the new gaming companies of tomorrow will grow into big successes that will be able to hire many of the top talent that have unfortunately lost their jobs in the gaming industry recently. With new growth companies there’s always demand to hire new people and top talent.”
Harri Manninen, cofounder of Play Ventures
