Participated · Series A · Oct 2022

Horizon Blockchain Games develops the Sequence developer platform and smart wallet, the Skyweaver trading-card game, and the Niftyswap SFT marketplace. Sequence is an all-in-one developer platform and smart wallet that supports Ethereum, Polygon and other EVM chains and is integrated by nearly 40 projects, with twelve already utilizing the platform. Sequence Wallet has 675K+ users and has been integrated into projects like DAZN Boxing, where early data showed about 80% of users were new to crypto and NFTs. Skyweaver launched open beta on Feb. 8, 2022, has added content such as the Clash of Inventors expansion (50 new cards), and Horizon plans new tradable items, spectator mode, guilds and Skyweaver economy 2.0. Horizon is preparing Niftyswap, a decentralized marketplace for semi-fungible tokens (SFTs) — enabled by the ERC-1155 standard the company co-authored — and has released the product to external testers ahead of a public release this fall. The company raised $40M in a Series A to grow Sequence, expand Skyweaver, and launch Niftyswap, and said the round was significantly oversubscribed. Horizon Blockchain Games develops games on Ethereum and tools for managing blockchain-based digital items. Its first title, Skyweaver, is a competitive digital trading-card game that uses the blockchain to give players verifiable ownership of cards that can be sold, traded, or withdrawn into storage. The company also operates Sequence (formerly Arcadeum), an easy-to-integrate wallet and item-management platform intended to hide blockchain complexity for users and developers. Horizon is pursuing both the platform (Sequence) and its own game (Skyweaver) in parallel, aiming to support not just gaming goods but other digital items and NFT art. Skyweaver is currently in private beta with plans for a wider launch later in the year and has admitted over 66,000 players so far. The company has raised a little over $13 million to date. Horizon is building Arcadeum, an Ethereum-powered platform that records ownership of in-game items and enables verifiable trade, sale and transfer between players. In parallel it is developing SkyWeaver, a cross-platform, free-to-play digital trading card game that showcases Arcadeum. SkyWeaver cards exist in silver and gold variants; silver cards can be bought for $2 while gold variants are earned or traded on the open market. Cards are stored in a player’s Arcadeum wallet on the blockchain but can be transferred to any Ethereum-based wallet. SkyWeaver has been in private beta since around July last year and currently has about 12,000 users with roughly 92,000 on the waitlist. The company plans to roll SkyWeaver into an open public beta later this year. Horizon Blockchain Games builds blockchain-enabled video games and developer tools with the aim of onboarding users to blockchain through play. Its debut title, SkyWeaver, is a free-to-play digital trading card game now in private testing and slated for open beta in Fall 2019; it will launch with more than 300 cards, cross-platform play, and player-owned tradable cards on Ethereum. Horizon also created Arcadeum, a crypto-arcade platform and wallet on Ethereum that stores game assets, serves as a browser for Ethereum applications, and offers an open-source platform for third-party developers. SkyWeaver allows players to win, trade, give away, or sell cards for real-world value and uses blockchain to enable ownership and secure trading. The company emphasizes enabling applications as economies that share value with users and creators. Horizon has raised external capital to support its product and platform development and is led by co-founder and CEO Peter Kieltyka. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Toronto.

Participated · Series A · Sep 2020

Bunch offers a mobile app positioned as an "AI coach" that delivers daily, short-form tips and tailors content to individual users and leadership goals. The company partnered with academics to define leadership-style archetypes that underpin its content and personalization. Bunch launched its service in November and reported roughly 13,000 signups by the start of the year, growing to nearly 20,000 users at the time of the article. The startup shifted from an earlier product direction (described in 2017 as analytics for company culture) to focus on individual leadership learning. Bunch plans to add community and peer-review features and expand into other content categories while concentrating on its initial niche. It intends to monetize via a freemium model to drive retention and longer-term engagement. Bunch is a party app for multiplayer games that enables players to connect with friends over video chat and jump into their favorite games. Developers can integrate Bunch into their own games to boost engagement by letting players party up and play together. The product is inspired by LAN parties and delivers that experience on smartphones and tablets. Since March 2020 the app saw rapid adoption, growing more than 50 times in monthly active users and expanding its audience to include millennial players who are 60% female. The company will use its Series A funding to grow its user base and accelerate integrations with popular multiplayer games. Bunch is co‑founded by Selcuk Atli, Jason Liang, and Jordan Howlett and has offices in New York and Toronto. Bunch runs a SaaS platform called Team Analytics that plugs into a company’s Slack public channels and analyzes communication to produce real-time overviews of morale, collaboration, psychological safety and related KPIs. The company says these overviews are based on “scientifically valid KPIs” tied to team performance and do not require employee surveys. Bunch also added Teams at Work, a hub for leaders to connect with peers and share best practices. The product launched in May and emphasizes community-driven use where users discuss findings within their organizations. Bunch plans to use its new seed funding to expand into the US market. The company positions itself to become a leader in “collaboration intelligence” bridging management science and everyday leadership practice. Bunch provides an in-game video and voice chat layer for mobile titles, letting friends sync up and talk while playing. Its SDK is used by developers and works with hits like Fortnite and Roblox, and developers of games like Spaceteam are integrating deeper features. The app supports group voice or video chat for up to eight players and can enable advanced behaviors such as pinning friends’ faces to in-game characters when developers build in the SDK. Bunch launched its app in March and has already cracked the top 100 social iOS chart, with a planned Android launch. It is not monetizing yet but plans to sell expression tools like emotes and voice/video filters. The company intends to use new funding to add features (meeting new people, sharing replays) and to ramp user acquisition and developer partnerships. Bunch provides a platform that calculates optimal team makeups, measures each member’s impact on team dynamics, and delivers actionable recommendations to improve team performance. Users and candidates complete an online questionnaire based on the Organizational Culture Profiling method developed at Stanford University, producing profiles across six dimensions: customer-orientation, results-orientation, collaboration, detail-orientation, focus on principles, and adaptability. Employees, teams, and departments can experiment with different team setups using those profiles, and a Slack integration enables continuous, real-time monitoring of team culture. Launched in September 2017 and based in Berlin, the company has been tested by more than 1,000 companies, with customers including N26, Fraunhofer, and Digital Ocean. Bunch is led by CEO Darja Gutnick alongside Charles Ahmadzadeh and Anthony Reo and currently operates a 10-person team. The company intends to use the new funding to continue product development, expand the team, and grow sales.

Led · Series C · Nov 2019

Proletariat develops multiplayer games with a focus on community-driven experiences, and its current flagship title is Spellbreak, a AAA fantasy battle-royale centered on magic combat and spellcasting. Spellbreak is in closed beta and lets players select classes, combine spells, and compete as battlemages. The company plans to self-publish Spellbreak next year and is ramping up development and team expansion to support that effort. Proletariat was founded in 2012 in Boston by industry veterans from Harmonix, Turbine, and Insomniac. Its first major title, World Zombination, debuted in early 2015 and earned an Editor’s Choice on the iOS App Store. The company positions itself around transparent development and community engagement as it prepares for a broader launch.

Participated · Series B · Jul 2016

Scopely operates a portfolio of top-grossing mobile games (including Scrabble GO, MARVEL Strike Force, Star Trek Fleet Command, YAHTZEE With Buddies and others) built on a proprietary technology and publishing platform. The company emphasizes a studio ecosystem and directed-by-consumer game experiences, claiming one of the most diversified portfolios in the West. Scopely reports strong player engagement (Star Trek Fleet Command players average four hours per day) and launched Scrabble GO as the #1 most-downloaded word game worldwide. The business has achieved more than $1 billion in lifetime revenue and the company says it is significantly profitable with a strong balance sheet. Scopely plans to use new capital to accelerate M&A, expand into new product categories, and partner with teams and creators to scale growth. The company has roughly 950 employees across offices and studios in the United States, Spain, Ireland, the UK, and Japan. Scopely creates, publishes and live-operates mobile games and interactive entertainment products for worldwide audiences, delivering digital, directed-by-consumer experiences across original and licensed IP. Its portfolio includes Star Trek Fleet Command, Looney Tunes World of Mayhem, WWE Champions 2019, The Walking Dead: Road To Survival, YAHTZEE With Buddies and Wheel of Fortune: Free Play. The company intends to use new funding to accelerate its M&A and investment strategy and to expand its portfolio into new genres and IP. Scopely reported more than $1 billion in lifetime revenue this past summer and has more than doubled its valuation in the prior year. The company added two games at the end of 2018 and created Star Trek Fleet Command with the recently acquired DIGIT Game Studios. Scopely is led by Co-CEOs Walter Driver and Javier Ferreira and has global operations in Los Angeles, Barcelona, Tokyo and Dublin, with additional studios in seven countries across four continents. Scopely is a mobile-games company and touchscreen entertainment network led by CEO and co‑founder Walter Driver. It develops and publishes games in partnership with development studios; notable titles include The Walking Dead: Road to Survival, WWE Champions, Wheel of Fortune Free Play, Yahtzee and Dice With Buddies variants. The company operates a network with more than 165 million users. Scopely raised an additional $100M in Series C funding, bringing its Series C to $160M and total funding to more than $250M to date. Backers on the latest tranche included Revolution Growth, Greycroft Partners and Evolution Media. The company intends to use the funds to make acquisitions and to invest in game studios and intellectual property. Scopely highlights expertise in game design, live services, marketing, analytics, business development and advertising. Scopely has built a platform for promoting and monetizing mobile games, whether developed in-house or by third-party studios. Its titles include The Walking Dead: Road to Survival, Wheel of Fortune Free Play and WWE Champions. The company says it reaches more than 125 million players, with The Walking Dead alone generating hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. Scopely said it is already profitable. Management plans to use new capital to expand the business through inorganic means while continuing organic growth in parallel. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles. Scopely offers tools for promoting and monetizing mobile games and operates both in-house development and partnerships with outside studios. The company released two hit games last year — The Walking Dead: Road to Survival and Yahtzee with Buddies — both ranked among the top-grossing games on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Road to Survival has been installed by more than 20 million players, and the game’s revenues have grown every month since launch, driven by advertising and in-app purchases. Scopely says it will continue to invest in existing titles while also launching new games. The company pursues partnerships with major IP holders, having worked with Hasbro and Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, and intends to pursue similar partnerships going forward. Financially, Scopely has raised a total of $98.5 million to date, including the newly announced Series B.

Participated · Series C · Sep 2013

Twitch operates a live video game streaming platform that enables gamers to stream their play and offers VOD content. The service reports 45 million monthly unique viewers and hosts esports tournaments that attract very large concurrent audiences (for example, 450,000 viewers for a semi-final). Twitch appeals to advertisers targeting young males with disposable income. The company has announced upcoming integration with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 so gamers can stream console play, a move expected to grow viewership. Twitch faces uneven global performance delivering high-definition video and requires more servers and infrastructure to scale. The company has not disclosed revenue or other financial performance metrics publicly. Twitch is a San Francisco-based live-streaming platform spun out of Justin.tv and focused on e-sports and gaming. Launched about a year before the article, it quickly became the company's primary business and attracts roughly 20 million gamers tuning in. Twitch monetizes through advertising (including a deal with CBS Interactive to sell its video ad inventory), a growing pay-per-view business for live events, and a subscription model available to streaming partners. The company has struck partnerships with multiple game publishers and e-sports leagues that drive distribution and revenue. At the time of the article Twitch had about 60 employees and planned to significantly increase headcount to build out engineering and support streaming on more devices and game consoles. The company was investing in an SDK to let gamers broadcast and view games directly from consoles as part of its growth plan.