Participated · Equity · Nov 2018

Dapper Labs is the maker of NBA Top Shot, a fantasy basketball NFT game where users buy, sell and trade digital cards representing NBA players and moments. The company developed Flow, a blockchain built for scalability and practical use cases, which it positions as an infrastructure play beyond fantasy sports. NBA Top Shot has 1.1 million registered users who have traded more than $780 million on the platform. Dapper Labs recently signed a partnership with LaLiga and expects to launch its LaLiga experience in June 2022. The company faces competition from other NFT sports platforms such as Sorare, which is also expanding into additional professional sports. Dapper is betting heavily on Flow to power additional experiences beyond NBA Top Shot. Dapper Labs builds NFT-based digital collectibles and the Flow blockchain protocol, best known for NBA Top Shot. The company reported that Top Shot has generated over $500 million in sales for its animated trading cards. Dapper will use new financing to continue building NBA Top Shot and expand the platform to other sports and a broader creator community. Flow is designed to handle mainstream consumer applications at scale, enable fiat and credit-card transactions, and reduce high gas fees and environmental concerns. Major partners and users of Flow include Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, Warner Media, the UFC and thousands of third-party developers and creators. The round values the company at about $2.6 billion, according to multiple media reports, and CEO Roham Gharegozlou framed NFTs as a new monetization model for fans and creators. Dapper Labs builds NFT products and its own high-throughput Flow blockchain. Its flagship collectibles game NBA Top Shot launched in full after a private beta that generated over $2 million in revenue. The company completed work on Flow earlier this year; the FLOW token is the native asset used by validators, developers and users to participate in the network and earn rewards. Dapper recently closed an $18 million token sale on CoinList, with 13,000 participants between Sept. 21 and Oct. 2. Earlier it raised $12 million in a prior funding round that included Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and several NBA stars. The firm's activity combines collectible gaming, token economics and blockchain infrastructure. Dapper Labs develops the Flow blockchain and is the company behind CryptoKitties and upcoming titles such as NBA Top Shot. The company uses blockchain technology to create new forms of digital engagement for fans, giving people a stake in communities and new ways for consumers to become creators. Flow is designed to provide the stability and scalability necessary for blockchain products to support mass-market adoption, and it also provides payment rails for credit cards and cryptocurrency. Dapper has announced partnerships with the NBA and NBPA, Warner Music Group, Ubisoft, UFC, and Dr. Seuss Entertainment to build gaming and entertainment experiences on Flow. The company intends to use the funds raised to scale the Flow project. Roham Gharegozlou is founder and CEO; Dapper Labs was founded in 2018 and is based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Dapper Labs is best known for CryptoKitties and is developing consumer-facing projects such as NBA Top Shot. The company unveiled Flow, a blockchain built to support high-performance ecosystems of apps and games without compromising decentralization. Flow is aimed at enabling music, gaming, and sports experiences that use crypto tokens, interoperable game assets, and verified digital memorabilia. Dapper Labs announced partnerships and advisory support from entertainment and game companies, including Ubisoft and Animoca Brands, and a strategic investment from Warner Music Group. Flow is scheduled to launch in 2020 to support the company’s large-scale consumer projects. Financially, Dapper Labs raised $11 million in the reported round and has raised $40 million to date.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2018

Epic Games is the maker of Fortnite and the Unreal Engine, and has expanded Fortnite into a hub of user-generated game modes and brand collaborations. The company is broadening its scope with standalone titles like Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival and operates a lucrative in-game store for skins and digital goods. Epic will use Unreal Engine and its online social gaming infrastructure to build an “all-new games and entertainment universe” in partnership with Disney. The collaboration will bring characters and storylines from Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and others into interoperable experiences tied to Fortnite. Disney’s $1.5 billion equity stake accompanies the partnership and signals a major strategic entry into games for Disney. The project aims to let players “play, watch, shop and engage” and is described as persistent, open and interoperable, with a release timeframe described as “soon(ish).” Epic Games is best known as the maker of Fortnite and as a platform for social, interactive entertainment. The company is partnering with Lego to build a kid-focused metaverse and says the product will prioritize child safety, privacy, and tools that give users control. Epic frames the planned digital experiences as family-friendly spaces that empower children to be creators and explore connections between digital and physical worlds. The company announced a $2 billion capital infusion to accelerate those efforts and support continued growth. Epic emphasized three safety principles for the project: prioritizing children’s well-being, safeguarding privacy, and equipping users with control over their digital experience. There is no timeline or detailed product description yet for the proposed virtual world. Epic Games is best known for the blockbuster Fortnite and also provides core developer tools such as the Unreal Engine, Epic Online Services, and the Epic Games Store. The company says it is focused on building connected social experiences across Fortnite, Rocket League and Fall Guys and on empowering game developers and creators. Epic has been using its cash to acquire studios, including the March acquisition of Mediatonic, maker of Fall Guys. Management, led by controlling shareholder and CEO Tim Sweeney, frames the company’s work as part of a broader Metaverse strategy. Epic has an ongoing legal battle with Apple and Google over in-game payment revenues that has been consuming company attention. The company’s latest fundraise values it at an equity valuation of $28.7 billion. Epic Games operates Fortnite, one of the world’s largest games with over 350 million accounts and 2.5 billion friend connections, and develops Unreal Engine, which is used across games and industries such as film, architecture, automotive, and simulation. Through Unreal Engine, Epic Games Store, and Epic Online Services it provides an end-to-end digital ecosystem for developers and creators to build, distribute, and operate games and other content. The company has over 40 offices worldwide with headquarters in Cary, North Carolina and was founded in 1991. Epic announced a $1.78 billion funding round consisting of primary capital and secondary purchases from employee equity holders, and its post-money equity valuation is $17.3 billion. Investors named in the round include Sony (a previously announced $250 million strategic investment), Baillie Gifford, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Lightspeed Venture Partners, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, David Tepper, and existing investors KKR and Smash Ventures. Epic said the financing will accelerate its efforts to build a new kind of digital ecosystem using real-time 3D technology, services that connect hundreds of millions of people, and a digital storefront offering a fair business model; the company will remain controlled by founder and CEO Tim Sweeney and retain a single class of common stock. Epic Games is the creator of Fortnite and the long-running Unreal game development engine. The company has historically released free-to-play games as a loss leader to showcase its Unreal toolkit. Fortnite’s massive success has allowed Epic to reduce Unreal Engine prices while continuing to upgrade the technology. Epic recently raised $1.25 billion in a new round of financing and has been reinvesting cash into the community, including a $100 million commitment to Fortnite esports competitions. The company’s cultural impact includes dance crazes, merchandise tie-ins, and broader mainstream attention. Tim Sweeney remains in control of the company while new investors have joined its cap table.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2017

Gamer Sensei offers one-on-one personalized online lessons that match players with curated expert coaches using a patent-pending system. The platform supports competitive esports titles including League of Legends, DOTA 2, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch. Users pick their game and are matched with a coach to receive personalized advice and strategic education as they complete lessons. The company raised an additional $4m in venture capital funding to support its operations. It intends to use the funds to accelerate continued growth at its downtown Boston headquarters. Gamer Sensei was co-founded by Rohan Gopaldas, William Collis and Jiapeng Ji. Gamer Sensei operates a patent-pending mastery platform that matches competitive gamers with a large collection of certified Sensei for one-on-one, personalized in-game coaching across major eSports titles. The company currently offers coaching and skills development for Hearthstone, Overwatch, League of Legends, DOTA2, Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft II. Gamer Sensei’s core product centers on a matching algorithm and personalized curricula that produce measurable player improvements. The company announced exclusive partnerships with NRG eSports and StrifeCro from Cloud9 to develop curricula and expand its Sensei network. Future plans include adding on-demand training, personalized assessments that account for prior skills and learning styles, expanding to additional games, and establishing industry-standard credentialing for Sensei. The platform is positioned to scale its coach network and curricular offerings while leveraging partnerships to drive credibility and adoption.

Participated · Series C · Jun 2017

Super League Gaming is a global community platform that offers accessible esports competitions, content and social interactions for amateur gamers. Its platform hosts both online and in-person gaming arenas and enables local gaming experiences, recreational and competitive play, content creation and social networking for players of all ages and skill levels. Founded in 2014, the company began with Minecraft events in movie theaters for kids and has since hosted more than 30,000 kids across six seasons of play. In November 2016 the company expanded its competitive events to include League of Legends in partnership with Riot Games. The company is led by CEO Ann Hand. Financially, Super League completed a $15M Series C and has raised more than $28M to date. Super League Gaming operates an interactive video-game league that stages competitive events in movie theaters across the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 2014 and led by CEO Ann Hand, the company began in the summer of 2015 and is now in its fifth season of Minecraft competition. Its current series, Metropolis Madness, is played in more than 50 theaters across 30 markets in the U.S. and Canada. The company has raised $20M in total funding to date. It intends to use the new funds to launch additional programs for Metropolis Madness. Super League Gaming operates recreational leagues that gather gamers in movie theaters to compete collaboratively using their laptops and mobile devices, with gameplay merged into a single aerial view projected onto the big screen. The company runs six-week league sessions where teams climb a national leaderboard and compete for prizes, and it partners with major chains including Cinemark, Regal, AMC and luxury iPic Theaters. Following a summer preseason tour across 25 major cities and engagement with over 10,000 gamers, Super League planned a Fall League session on Oct. 6 featuring Minecraft and expansion into over 70 U.S. theater gaming arenas. The company intends to add multiple mainstream PC and mobile game titles in the coming months and to expand theater gaming globally in 2016. Founded in 2014 and led by John Miller and Ann Hand, Super League is based in Santa Monica, Calif.