The Reality of Video Game Investments

The Reality of Video Game Investments Even now, pre-seed and seed rounds are competitive for investors: everyone wants to be the one who discovered the talent and had the highest ROI. Fund investors expect VCs to do exactly that. This leads to situations where most VCs want to participate in the first round but are reluctant to join following rounds if they weren't in early. After all, what’s the point for LPs to back them otherwise? This is especially true for gaming VCs, where LPs expect not just financial returns from their VCs but also co-investment opportunities and market insights, so the funds with the best access to original deal flow win. This creates a vacuum at the Series A and later stages, which can be a brutal wake-up call for founders who previously enjoyed FOMO-driven fundraising because of their […]

Ilia Eremeev April 24

Journal

The wildest ad I saw in the Hexa Sort 😆

Ilia Eremeev November 4

Journal

The Games Fund to Champion Women Gamers

The Games Fund wants to create a more inclusive ecosystem for women gamers. Gaming, once considered merely a children's activity, has now grown into a dominant force in the global entertainment industry. This shift from a niche interest to a major player has changed perceptions and unlocked vast investment potential, particularly in emerging markets. On a global scale, the gaming market is forecasted to reach $282.3 billion this year and expand to $363.2 billion by 2027, with an audience of 1.472 million users. In the MENA region, the gaming industry is estimated to be worth $6.34 billion in 2024, projected to grow to $10.69 billion by 2029, representing an 11.02% increase. This growth is primarily fueled by greater access to technology, a youthful population, rising disposable incomes, and the availability of high-speed mobile internet and gaming hardware. As a result, […]

Ilia Eremeev September 2

Journal

Dynamics Of Gaming Deals

We partnered with my favorite analytical platform, InvestGame, to analyze the trends in video game investments over the past five years and created an internal presentation for The Games Fund. I decided to share this report with the community and held a seminar earlier this year in Belgrade, Serbia. Now, I’m excited to present this updated and enhanced analysis to you, which I believe will be useful for gaming company founders and investors to reflect on investment dynamics and their underlying causes.The key takeaway is that the real challenge lies not in securing the initial round of funding but in achieving full funding and successfully delivering the product. While competition for promising early-stage startups remains intense, many struggle to secure follow-on rounds. Early-stage investors are a part of the ecosystem and should work in sync with larger partners. Saying so, […]

Ilia Eremeev September 2

Journal

Inside The Investor’s Mind

For the sake of transparency in the industry, I decided to create a presentation and share how we at The Games Fund make investment decisions, identifying what we perceive as risks and opportunities. We believe this process shouldn't be a mystery or a black box for founders. There is enough struggle already in fundraising. So, why not explain our thought process and allow founders to measure their pitch against our framework? This can lead to a better understanding of the process and ultimately improve the chances of successful fundraising in these challenging times. This is our perspective, other funds may have different views, but I believe the general principles are universal.

Ilia Eremeev August 12

Journal

I love fundraising!

I love fundraising! All the excitement, challenges, achievements, despair, sweet taste of victory, and pain of rejection. The failures and learnings, deal with handshakes and ghosting. One moment, you feel like a winner, the next - a failure, only to wake up to an email that makes you feel like a king again. This humbling experience brings VCs closest to what founders feel. Many VCs dislike fundraising because they hate being in a weak position, asking for and facing rejection. Especially now, when despite it being a technically perfect moment for investments, the sentiment is harsh. However, I believe VCs should embrace this experience. In TGF I, we have 40 investors, founders, and private and public companies worldwide. You can imagine how many "NOs" a no-name management team endured to get 40 "YESes." Nothing beats getting a YES!

Ilia Eremeev August 5

Journal

Global Gaming Report Q2 2024

Following the recent recognition by InvestGame, The Games Fund was once again named the top #4 early-stage gaming VC fund in the world by Drake Star, confirming our status as a leading VC firm in the industry. As Eitan Reisel wisely stated in his post - VC funds' success is the success of founders who put their trust in us. We are incredibly proud to be trusted and lead first rounds in the most promising European gaming companies from Poland and Cyprus (where we are an absolute dominator!) to France, Estonia, Norway, the UK, Germany, and beyond, and happy to see them growing, raising new rounds from top growth stage investors and strategics, launching games, and conquering top charts. We are dedicated to our vision and our mission to back the outstanding founders, of all creeds, in often overlooked regions […]

Ilia Eremeev July 8

Journal

So, I fired up my GamePass.

Aye, I'm well into atmospheric games. Love the whole horror genre, but especially the isolation horror. When "Still Wakes the Deep" came oot, I had to gie it a go. Plus, with The Games Fund backin' some horror game devs, it felt right up my alley. So, I fired up ma GamePass.Here’s whit I think efter 5:30 to beat the game. Heads up, there might be some spoilers.The game is a stunner in 4K HDR, fully unleashed on the 4090. The settin' on a falling apart oil rig in the North Sea is class. Even though ye’re stuck in wee boxish compartments and technical rooms full of pipes, it never gets old. Every bit is well-crafted, givin' ye the best claustrophobic feel on the market. And a thalassophoby when you go get a breather on a deck. But the baddies are […]

Ilia Eremeev June 21

Journal

Out of 124 recent gaming investments, only 19 in Europe?

InvestGame recently released a new report on business activity in the video game industry, and it's quite positive! Make sure to check it out - link here. I am happy to see The Games Fund sits firmly among the most active early-stage gaming funds, leading investments in outstanding gaming startups. Despite all the challenges, we believe that great times, great games, and even more success stories are ahead of us all. I also wanted to address an interesting question that Olle Pridiuksson recently raised.He asked, "Why, out of 124 recent gaming investments, only 19 were in Europe? What is wrong with European gaming companies?"My answer is: nothing is wrong!1. The largest funds are based in the US, and US funds mostly invest in US companies.2. The EU startup legal framework is extremely fragmented and quite complex. We've invested directly in […]

Ilia Eremeev June 3

Journal

Over 14000 games were released on Steam in 2023 alone

Over 14000 games were released on Steam in 2033 alone, and it seems almost impossible to break through this competition. But is it? Or do failures primarily happen because the game is just bad, while decent games are doing well, and outstanding games are doing outstandingly well?Can you name at least one game that was released last year (or YTD) that is as insanely good as Lethal Company, Helldivers 2, Balatro, Robocop: Rogue City, or any other great game that we had last year but that did not succeed because it was not able to attract players' attention? According to Statista, out of these 14k new releases in 2023, about 99% were published by small independent studios. AA/AAA content is actually not growing, while Steam is peaking with a record-breaking 33.6 MILLION CCU (+XBOX Game Pass, EGS, and DRM-free stores).So […]

Ilia Eremeev May 6

Journal

Little observation about the gaming startup market.

I have a little observation about the gaming startup market. In 2018, I was working for a public gaming company, and we were considering investing in the newly formed gaming VC fund (now one of the best on the market). They pitched that they see about 100 gaming investment opportunities a year. We had a similar deal flow, and I suppose it was the best you could get back then. >> Fast forward to the present moment. In 2023 alone, TGF received over 3000 applications, and I believe it is about the best you can get now. x30 growth in deal flow in 5 years.

Ilia Eremeev March 18

Journal

A few thoughts about missing opportunities.

A few thoughts about missing opportunities. In life, the FOMO pain is real, especially when you are actually missing that opportunity. Life feels so bitter, and disappointing. It brutally sucks! But I learned the hard way that there is always another opportunity waiting around the corner, and another one, and another one. And so many times in my life and career, missing something actually led to a way better outcome - another deal, another job, another meeting, that would have been missed if I hadn't lost the first one. Why am I even thinking about this now? Well, some time ago, we did not get into the deal, and I was really upset, and FOMO had me crushed. But today, we landed an amazing deal at a whole new level, and we would not have had the bandwidth and capacity […]

Ilia Eremeev March 1

Ilia Eremeev

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