Bitkraft Ventures — a gaming venture capital firm based in Denver, Colorado, but with European founders — has raised its third fund, at $275 million. The fund will make seed and Series A investments in game studios and platforms to support game production. The moves come at a time when investments in games have actually fallen by 72% year over year, according to a recent report from Pitchbook.
Founded by gaming industry veteran Jens Hilgers, Bitkraft 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 studio, which Hilgers seemed particularly excited about.
“Frost Giant has set out to build a successor in the real-time strategy space. The team has previously been involved in building StarCraft and are now releasing a game called Stormgate. It is highly anticipated and has had great early reviews. This is a good example of the type of game company we are investing in.”
Other investments include Anzu, an in-game advertising platform; Carry1st, an Africa-focused mobile gaming platform; InWorld, a social platform; Karate fighting, martial arts league; and Immutable, creator of the cryptocurrency-based game Gods Unchained.
He said the company's LP base is a mix of family offices and institutional funds, and confirmed the presence of a major global sportswear player as an LP but was not at liberty to reveal the name.
“The strategy we followed with the second fund is about 30 to 35 companies, average ticket size of about $4 million, 50% seed capital and 50% follow-on. This strategy has seemed to work so far. We are ranked in the top decile in Cambridge Associates' latest ranking, and we're pleased with the performance.
Perhaps the best way to position Bitkraft is to compare it with Singapore's Play Ventures, which has raised $222.9 million across four funds but also invests across several types of gaming platforms.
