Recently, venture capital firm Griffin Gaming Partners announced that its second fund (Fund II) has been oversubscribed by $750 million, including sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, family offices and strategic partners in the gaming industry. Next, the fund will invest in game content, software infrastructure and social platforms, as well as game-related Web3 companies, participating in investments from seed to growth.
With the launch of "Fund II", Griffin Gaming Partners has become the largest game fund at present. Games One data shows that Griffin's AUM (asset under management) has reached $1.03 billion.
Not only in the field of traditional games, blockchain games and encryption, Griffin Gaming Partners has long been involved. On December 15 last year, Griffin launched a $150 million on-chain gaming fund with Solana Ventures and blockchain gaming platform Forte to support blockchain gaming startups.
Griffin co-founders Philip Sanderson and Nick Tuosto said the agency has made more than a dozen Web3-related investments to date, accounting for more than half of the deployed capital. So what layouts has Griffin Gaming Partners made in the field of chain games and encryption, and what is the background? Next, Rhythm BlockBeats will introduce you to this game venture capital institution.
Currently the largest game fund
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Griffin Gaming Partners is a gaming-focused venture capital firm that invests in game content, software infrastructure and social platforms, including game-related Web3 companies after entering the crypto space.
The agency was founded by Peter Levin, Philip Sanderson and Nick Tuosto, three founders with decades of collective investing, consulting and operational experience in the gaming industry, as well as a keen interest in games.
Philip Sanderson、Peter Levin、与 Nick Tuosto
Previously, Co-Creator Peter Levin has been investing in the film and television industry and gaming, was ceo of Legendary Industries, and served as president of interactive enterprise, games and digital strategy for Lionsgate Pictures, the seventh-largest revenue film and television agency in North America, and chairman of the esports organization Immortals Gaming Club, which currently owns two teams, Clash Royale and League of Legends.
Philip Sanderson has been investing in game production companies Telltale Games and Discord for more than a decade, which led Griffin Gaming Partners' investment in Discord. Nick Tuosto, a former director of LionTree, a New York-based investment bank, served as an advisor to Tencent's acquisition of Clash of Clans makers Supercell and FoxNext, and later brought years of investment experience in the Internet and digital media to griffin's team.
At its inception, Griffin Gaming Partners launched a $235 million fund to invest in game companies at all stages of the world, including start-up game studios, emerging game platforms and infrastructure companies, which was a large-scale game-specific fund that was rare in the market at the time.
Evan Van Zelfden, managing director of Games One, also said in an interview that game funds like Griffin were basically established in the last decade, and they are making up for the regret that there were no gaming-specific venture capital funds for game startups in the past.
After its second fund was oversubscribed at $750 million, Griffin Gaming Partners quickly grew to become the largest gaming fund today. Not long ago, according to the 2021 game investment data released by Invest Game, Griffin only ranked sixth in the top 15 VC Funds in the game field.
Enter the crypto space and keep expanding your gaming audience
At present, there are more than 3 billion gamers in the world, and the size of the game market exceeds the size of movies, music and books combined, making it the fastest growing consumer trend in the world. With the global epidemic of the new crown epidemic, the game industry has also ushered in further development, and NewZoo data shows that the overall revenue of the game market is expected to reach $180.3 billion in 2021.
Advances in consumer behavior and technology are creating unprecedented opportunities for the gaming space. Griffin Gaming Partners co-creator Phil Sanderson said that in the past few years, we have seen such extraordinary innovation in the gaming space, and the explosive growth of blockchain games like Axie Infinity is attracting new players, so Griffin will also continue to expand the gaming audience to diversify it.
"It's a very incredible speed, which only Web3 and the decentralized trend paradigm can do," Sanderson laments again.
At the same time, the explosion of the gaming industry has attracted countless independent studios and game developers, and a lot of money is pouring into the intersection of crypto and gaming. These companies have established direct connections with players on Twitter, Discord, or their own communities, skipping middlemen like app stores and speeding up the game's cycle.
However, Sanderson also said that while hundreds of companies are experimenting with blockchain games, many are not "crypto-native" and do not have much experience in making blockchain games or cryptocurrency-related knowledge. In addition, the current blockchain game in terms of playability, is also the most criticized by players, Axie Infinity has been criticized by many players.
As a result, game developers not only need to be community-based, but also figure out the real long-term economic design of games in the Web3 space, and balance the parts of the game that are having fun with games. Griffin Gaming Partners will empower these developers, gaming platforms and players.
Crypto field portfolio
Gaming
Strong
Forte is a game blockchain platform designed to build a full suite of technologies, tools, and services for developers, players, and fans to remove any barriers to their entry into the blockchain space, and the team has founded Kabam, GarageGames, Unity, and others with a deep understanding of the crypto economy and blockchain technology.
In May 2021, Forte announced a $185 million Series A funding round led by Griffin Gaming Partners and with the participation of a16z, Union Grove Venture Partners, Battery Ventures and others.
IndiGG
IndiGG is a sub-DAO of Yield Guild Games (YGG) that was established in conjunction with Polygon to create a Play to Earn game guild in India.
On January 19, IndiGG announced $6 million in funding from Sequoia India, Lightspeed, Griffin Gaming Partners, Variant Fund, Animoca Brands and many others.
NEON
NEON is a Seattle-based independent video game studio and publisher founded by Mark Long, the original publishing director of HBO, who is developing a blockchain-based AAA-level first-person shooter called Shrapnel.
In November 2021, Neon raised $10.5 million, led by Griffin Gaming Partners, with Polychain Capital and Forte, and Forte will also provide technical support for the project.
Super Team Games
Super Team Games (STG), a game development studio that develops blockchain-based sports projects, has received early venture capital from Griffin Gaming Partners.
Supersocial
Supersocial is a game development studio that will create the most iconic games and experiences in the metaverse.
In September 2021, Supersocial announced a $5.2 million seed round led by Initial Capital and with the participation of Griffin Gaming Partners, Warner Music Group, TIME Ventures, LightShed Ventures and others.
Digital Insight Games
Digital Insight Games, a blockchain game development studio built with AAA-rated RPGs, was founded in 2021 and is not yet officially launched, with an early investment from Griffin Gaming Partners.
Metaverse
Everyrealm
Everyrealm is an infrastructure connected to the metaverse that can be invested, managed, and developed for NFTs, virtual real estate, metaverse platforms, games, and more.
On February 11, Everyrealm announced the completion of a $60 million Series A round of financing, led by A16z and invested by Griffin Gaming Partners, including Coinbase, Dragonfly Capital, Hashed, Lightspeed, Dapper Labs, Animoca Brands and others.
DeHorizon
DeHorizon is a metaverse ecosystem where players can create, socialize, and entertain with other fellow players.
On February 18, DeHorizon announced the completion of a strategic round of funding, led by Griffin Gaming Partners and Circle Ventures.
Chillchat
Chillchat is a Solana-based pixel art metaverse game platform where players can use the platform's pixel editor, world system and other tools to create their own pixel identities for adventure.
On Feb. 21, Chillchat raised a $1.85 million seed equity round led by Solana Ventures, which includes FTX Ventures, Animoca Brands, Griffin Gaming Partners, A&T Capital, YGGSEA and others.
NFT
Palm
Palm is an NFT system of culture and creativity built on Ethereum.
In December 2021, Palm completed a $27 million financing round, led by Microsoft's M12, and participated by Griffin Gaming Partners, RRE, Sfermion, The LAO, Warner Brothers and others.
alethea.ai
alethea.ai is a protocol for creating intelligent and interactive NFTs and is the initiator of the iNFT (Intelligent NFT) standard.
In December 2021, alethea.ai partnered with BeingAI and Binance NFT Markets to launch NFT-based AI game characters, such as the robot Sophia. Previously, alethea.ai received early venture capital from Griffin Gaming Partners.
Challenge
Soma.Finance
Soma.Finance is a compliant multi-asset DEX and issuance platform with assets such as general crypto assets, NFTs, tokenized shares, tokenized securities (STOs), and more.
On January 20, Soma.Finance received a $6.5 million funding from Animoca Brands, with the participation of Griffin Gaming Partners, GSR, Kenetic Capital and others.
Social
Discord
Discord is an online text, voice, and video communication platform designed to create communities. With the game cut in, Discord has quickly attracted users in various fields, especially crypto users, from the DeFi protocol to the NFT project to the DAO, more and more people are trying to enter the BUIDL (construction) of this Web 3.
Earlier, Discord received venture capital from Griffin Gaming Partners, and Philip Sanderson, one of Griffin's three directors, was a former Discord executive.
*Rhythm BlockBeats reminds investors to guard against chasing high risks, and the views expressed in this article do not constitute any investment advice.
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