From finding investors to pitching publishers: The funding journey explained
Alex Calvin
Friday 24th June 2022
Investment is a part of the games industry landscape that is always in flux. What developers and investors want is changing all the time, as are the variety of options that studios have for securing funding and reaching the market.
Hiro Capital's partner Spike Laurie, Fundamentally Games' COO Ella Romanos, Marvelous Europe's head of operations Sarah Burns, and XR Games' CEO Bobby Thandi tackled some of the key topics about investment at our latest GI Live: Online.
There is a wide array of options for developers when it comes to securing money. Studios can bootstrap and fund themselves, which Thandi points to as "the ideal route" as companies keep 100% ownership, having no investors or board to answer to.
"That said, venture capital investment is good for certain firms," he continued. "For XR Games, it was a route that served our needs the best. We were in VR in 2017 when revenue wasn't great. We needed VC investment. We have three main investors, Praetura, Maven and ACT Capital Partners; each brings a different skillset to table, whether that's helping with C-suite employment and advisors, opening doors that might not be possible previously and giving us growth capital we need. They've supported us all along the way.
"It depends on the genre you're in, the medium of gaming you're doing, what the growth looks like for your particular market, what you are going to use funds for. If you find great investors, all they wish to do is support you. At first, they're on the other end of the table and can be negotiating hard against you, but as soon as the investment comes into your bank account, they're on your side of the table and want nothing but to grow your studio."
Getting funding is
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