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 · Seed · Mar 2019

Dorian provides a no-code mobile platform (iOS and Android) that converts written fiction into interactive, free-to-play choose-your-own-adventure games where readers can spend in-app currency to unlock alternate routes. The app splits in-app purchase revenue 50/50 with authors and pays creators via Tipalti, enabling continuous monetization rather than one-time fees. The company reports around 250 monetizing creators, with top creators making roughly $15,000 in annualized revenue and a few treating Dorian as a full-time job. Dorian supports fan works within its ecosystem via creator agreements that let original authors retain IP and set royalty splits for derivative works; it has also run licensed events with partners like Lionsgate. The product includes livestreaming so creators can play or showcase stories to build audiences, and the company employs human moderation plus host/reporting tools to manage content. With plans to grow the team and license more IP for in-app events, Dorian is also prioritizing hiring and support for Ukrainians affected by the war. Dorian offers a no-code engine and flowchart-style interface that enables fiction writers to design characters and scenes from visual assets, connect story branches, and create player choices without programming. The platform supports real-time collaboration between writers and provides detailed analytics to track reader responses and optimize monetization. Writers publish directly through the Dorian app and retain ownership of their resulting intellectual property. In early tests with about 50,000 players, writers were able to improve monetization by roughly 70% after one or two iterations. The company is currently invite-only and plans a broader launch later this year. Dorian is led by co-founder and CEO Julia Palatovska, who previously headed business development at G5 Entertainment. Dorian is building an "immersive fiction" mobile app inspired by experimental choose-your-own-adventure storytelling such as Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. The product lets users make decisions that shape nonlinear narratives and supports social collaboration so players can make choices together. The company plans to deliver multiple stories aimed initially at millennial and Gen Z women and to create a platform combining fiction with social gameplay. Dorian emphasizes female leadership and diverse, authentic female role models; CEO Julia Palatovska leads a team including Jordan Lee and Heather Logas, all with mobile games backgrounds. The San Francisco-based startup has raised $2 million in seed funding to support content development. Investors are primarily game-focused firms and industry angels, reflecting interest from the gaming investment community.