Weekly News Digest #28
# of announced deals
9
announced deals’ size
$208.9m
# of closed deals
9
Genvid Raises $113m Of Series C Funding
New York-based Genvid Holdings, a parent company of Genvid Entertainment and Genvid Technologies, has closed a $113m Series C funding round co-led by Valor Equity Partners and Atreides Management. Other participants of the round include Dan Loeb’s Third Point Ventures, Cobalt Capital, LightShed Ventures, and such strategic investors as Huya, NTT Docomo Ventures, and Samsung Ventures. Founded in 2016, Genvid has already managed to attract $166m in funding.
Genvid is known for creating “massive interactive live events” or simply MILEs. The first MILE of the company was Rival Peak, a massive interactive live event that ran exclusively on Facebook from Dec’20 to Mar’21. Co-created with gaming studio Pipeworks Studios, Rival Peak was presented as a reality competition show featuring Tamagotchi-like AI contestants whose fates were controlled by the viewers.
Several days ago Genvid published a trailer of Project Raven — a new proof-of-concept horror live game experience. The project won’t be released to the public but will be used to introduce MILE to potential customers and partners.
Jacob Navok, CEO and co-founder of Genvid, said in his recent interview to Variety, that the company has finalized several deals with large intellectual property owners, but didn’t disclose the details and names of projects. The first one is expected to be released in 2022.
| NOTABLE TRANSACTIONS |
Discord has acquired US-based software company Sentropy MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
US-based gaming communication platform Discord has acquired US-based software company Sentropy, a developer behind an AI-powered tool to detect and fight online harassment. This is the second company Discord has acquired this year — a few weeks ago Discord bought US-based AR Startup Ubiquity6.
US-based authentication and grading services provider Collectors Universe has acquired video game authentication service provider Wata Games. The acquired company has recently certified the two most expensive video games in the industry: Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda for NES, which were sold at the auction for $1.56m and $870k respectively.
VENTURE FINANCING
India-based online storytelling platform Pratilipi has secured a $48m investment in a Series D round led by Krafton. The deal goes in line with Krafton’s strategy to invest $100m in Indian video games, esports, entertainment, and IT industries.
Sweden-based VR games developer Resolution Games has raised $25m in a Series C round co-led by Qualcomm Ventures and BITKRAFT Ventures. The proceeds will be used to support the ongoing development of existing games and finance the future products of the studio.
US-based startup Pipeline has raised $2m of Seed funding to further develop their platform with tools, masterclasses, and mentorship for beginning video game streamers.
