Participated · Equity · Sep 2020

PandaScore collects data from ongoing esports matches and uses AI to identify and surface the most useful statistics in real time. It supplies that data via an API to esports broadcasters to create richer viewing experiences and to bookmakers to help set odds. The platform aims to power media, betting, teams, and tournaments with better data. The company says it will use the new funding to expand its team and increase esports title coverage. PandaScore positions itself as a key data provider for the fast-growing esports entertainment industry. The startup was founded in Paris and emphasizes improving engagement and monetization across the esports ecosystem. PandaScore builds technology that extracts live statistics from esports video streams and delivers them via an API to stakeholders such as sponsors, media, teams and tournament organizers. Its API entered an open beta that will roll out this summer with a full launch expected by the end of the year. The product surfaces detailed statistics, schedules and live feeds for games including League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone and FIFA, with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Overwatch planned shortly. Customers already using the service include PSG eSport, PMU eSport and L’Equipe. The company plans to hire more researchers, accelerate product development and build a sales team to pursue its mid-term objective of becoming the real-time data provider for the esports market. PandaScore was founded in 2015 by Flavien Guillocheau and Jonathan Retterer.

Participated · Series A · Jul 2020

Mobalytics builds an automated, data-driven coach for competitive gaming, originally leveraging League of Legends API data to quantify player skills like survivability and teamplay. The company has expanded its assistants to multiple titles, including Legends of Runeterra, Teamfight Tactics and Valorant, and tracks metrics such as information processing, map awareness and tunnel vision. It partnered with Tobii to add eye-tracking metrics, running research to convert high-frequency gaze data into player-facing measures. Mobalytics aims to create an adaptive gaming assistant that personalizes suggestions to improve play. The company reports more than seven million monthly active users and plans to use new funding to double down on what has worked and expand into other games and genres. Mobalytics builds an analytics-driven competitive gaming coach that uses existing APIs and available data to assess player skills via a Gamer Performance Index (GPI). The GPI delivers a snapshot of a gamer’s playing style along with strengths and weaknesses in a single image to help players see what to improve, better match against competitors, or build more effective teams. The company is focused on top PC e-sports titles initially, launching a private beta for League of Legends to the first 10,000 people on its waiting list and planning Overwatch PC support early next year, with console gamers under consideration. Nearly 20,000 users have signed up for early access. Mobalytics raised $2.6 million in a seed round to recruit talent and expand operations across the globe; this is the company’s first major bout of fundraising. Co-founder Amine Issa said the immediate priority is ensuring the algorithms generate meaningful insights so players will trust and rely on the platform.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2020

Nifty Games develops quick-session competitive mobile sports games, holding licenses from the NFL, NFLPA, NBA and NBPA. Its premier title, NFL Clash, is available in select markets worldwide and is slated to launch in the United States this year. The company plans to use new funding to expand its sports games lineup and to invest in top-tier development staff. Financially, Nifty Games has raised over $50M since 2018 and completed a new financing in 2021. Founded by gaming veterans Jon Middleton and Pete Wanat in 2018, the company operates from Lafayette, California. The new capital and debt facility are intended to accelerate product development for global sports fans. Nifty Games is a Bay Area games publisher focused on developing officially licensed mobile sports titles in partnership with national leagues. The studio emphasizes quick, head-to-head mobile experiences rather than full-console simulations, aiming for short sessions and modern mobile monetization. It has partnerships with the NFL and NBA and plans to release an NFL Clash football title and an NBA head-to-head mobile game later this year. The company closed a $12M Series A earlier this year and previously raised a $3M seed in late 2018. Co-founders Jon Middleton and Pete Wanat leverage decades of games industry experience and extensive networks to secure league and development partnerships. Early investors reportedly include owners from MLB, MLS, NHL and eSports leagues, and the team aims to offer more varied official mobile experiences for fans during the pandemic. Nifty Games is a brand-new video game publisher based in San Francisco, CA. It was formed to deliver head-to-head free-to-play sports games on mobile and digital platforms for a large global audience. The company raised $3M in seed funding from aXiomatic Gaming, Defy.VC and March Capital Partners. Founders are Jon Middleton and Pete Wanat. The early team includes Dan Wasson (Head of Production), Jenny Lin (Head of Marketing) and Kathy McElwee (Interim CFO). The company is hiring.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2019

VENN operates a live, always-on television and digital streaming network that targets gaming, esports, pop-culture and lifestyle audiences. Launched in August 2020 and broadcasting from Vista Studios in Los Angeles, the service is distributed across a wide range of media platforms and recently expanded to The Roku Channel, potentially reaching 40 million active accounts embedded in roughly one-third of all smart TVs sold. The company produces original programming in-house and collaborates with prominent creators to populate its round-the-clock lineup. Co-founders and co-CEOs Ben Kusin and Ariel Horn have complemented the leadership team by hiring Jeff Jacobs, a former Viacom and NBC Sports executive, as EVP & General Manager to oversee content and business operations during the next phase of growth. VENN’s strategy focuses on widening distribution, enhancing production quality and forging additional content partnerships. Backed by well-known media and sports investors, the company has secured $26 million in Series A funding to accelerate expansion and audience acquisition.

Participated · Series C · Jan 2019

Niantic develops augmented-reality experiences and location-based games, best known for Pokémon GO. The company offers the Lightship AR Developer Kit (ARDK) to let third parties and indie developers build AR experiences using Unity. Niantic says tens of millions of people play its games each month and players have walked more than 10.9 billion miles in its games since launch. ARDK has been used by partners including Coachella, Historic Royal Palaces, Universal Pictures, SoftBank, Warner Music Group and the PGA of America. Niantic positions its effort as a “real-world metaverse” that uses AR and a 3D map of the world to augment physical experiences rather than tether users to VR headsets. Its portfolio includes newer titles like Pikmin Bloom and ended support for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite after consumer spending and global installs declined 57% year over year. Niantic is the developer behind Pokémon GO and the soon-to-be-released Harry Potter Wizards Unite, focused on location-based augmented reality games and developer tools. Its core offerings include AR frameworks and a large database of locational points of interest that it is beginning to open to third-party developers. The company is leveraging Pokémon GO's success as it plots next steps and expands its game portfolio and platform. Niantic has finalized a Series C totaling $245 million and disclosed a valuation of nearly $4 billion. The timing of the raise coincides with the upcoming Wizards Unite launch and the company's broader push to enable external developers on its AR stack. Niantic is an augmented-reality game developer that builds titles designed to get people outside and encourage movement, exploration, and face-to-face social interaction. Its products include Ingress and Pokémon GO. Pokémon GO was downloaded more than 750 million times in its first year. The company plans to use new funding to roll out a Harry Potter–based title. Originally formed at Google in 2010, Niantic operates offices in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Seattle, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Hamburg. Its investors include Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, and Alsop Louie Partners. Niantic builds real-world mobile games and experiences that combine geo-location technology with social interaction and storytelling. Its flagship title Ingress has been downloaded more than 13 million times and is played worldwide. The company is developing Pokémon GO in collaboration with The Pokémon Company and Nintendo, with a planned 2016 release on the App Store and Google Play. Niantic said it will use new funding to continue development of Pokémon GO, evolve and grow the Ingress community, and scale its real-world gaming platform. The company was incubated within Google by founder John Hanke and is based in San Francisco. Niantic intends to bring additional games to market leveraging its platform and strategic investor partnerships.