Bitkraft Ventures — a Denver, Colorado-based gaming investor with European founders — has raised its third round of funding for $275 million. The fund will make seed and Series A investments in game studios and platforms to support game production. The move comes as gaming investment is actually down 72% year-over-year, according to a recent PitchBook report.
Founded by gaming industry veteran Jens Hilgers, Bitcraft has more than 130 companies in its portfolio and more than $1 billion in assets under management.
The VC is an investor in Frost Giant Studios, and Hilgers seemed particularly excited.
“Frost Giant has set out to build a successor in the real-time strategy space. The team was previously involved in building StarCraft and is currently launching a game called Stormgate. This is a great example of the type of gaming companies we invest in.”
Other investments include in-game advertising platform Anzu. Carry1st is an Africa-focused mobile gaming platform. InWorld, a social platform. Karate combat, martial arts league. Immutable is the creator of the crypto-based game Gods Unchained.
He said the company's LP base is a mix of family offices and institutional funds, and confirmed that the global sportswear giant was an LP, but he was not at liberty to name it publicly. .
“The strategy we pursued with our second fund was around 30-35 companies, average ticket size around $4 million, 50% initial capital, 50% follow-on capital. That strategy has been successful so far. “The latest Cambridge Associates rankings place us in the top decile and we are pleased with our performance,” he added.
Perhaps the best way to position Bitkraft is to compare it to Singapore's Play Ventures, which has raised $222.9 million across four funds and has also invested in several gaming platforms.