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- What esports investors look for in esports investments
- BITKRAFT Ventures
- Play Ventures
- Makers Fund
- 1Up Ventures
- Black Sheep Ventures
- CAA Ventures
- Dune Ventures
- GameFounders
- Gamerforce Ventures
- Konvoy Ventures
- London Venture Partners
- Remagine Ventures
- SeventySix Capital
- Griffin Gaming Partners
- Connect with esports investors with Visible
The gaming and esports scene has been on a decade-long rise and is continuing its upward trend. Over the past year, there has been a surge in online gaming engagement due to quarantine isolation. From 2020-2025, GlobeNewswire forecasts a CAGR of 12% with emerging help from the VR/AR industry.
Visible looks to help connect founders with investors all over the world. Below, we highlight 10 of our favorite gaming-focused venture capitalists. Search through these investors and 11,000+ more on Visible’s Connect platform.
What Esports Investors Look for in Esports Investments
At Visible, we oftentimes compare a venture fundraise to a traditional B2B sales and marketing funnel. At the top of the funnel, you are adding new investors, in the middle of your funnel you are taking meetings and updating your potential investors, and at the bottom of your funnel, you are hopefully closing them as new investors.
With a traditional B2B sales and marketing funnel, you need to deeply understand your customers and potential customers — the same should be said for a venture fundraise. By understanding what your potential investors are, you’ll be able to better pitch your business and team for investment. Learn about some key things esports investors look for below:
Growth & Performance
At the end of the day, venture capitalists need to generate returns for their investors (LPs). In order to do this, they need to find companies that have the ability to turn into huge exits. In order to best spot overperformers, investors generally look to strong growth or traction and past performance. This can be used to forecast out the trajectory of the business and the likelihood of generating returns for LPs.
Related Resource: Understanding Power Law Curves to Better Your Chances of Raising Venture Capital
Strong Team
A startup, especially early-stage startups, are largely driven by their team and leaders. When venture investors are trying to understand a company’s ability to grow into a large company, they will often turn to the team to see if they have the ability and experience to scale a company.
Healthy Financials and Economics
Investors are also looking for a business that is financially healthy and can weather the challenges of building a start-up. At the end of the day, a business eventually needs to generate revenue and profits. While most early-stage businesses might not be profitable yet, they need to demonstrate that they have a business model and acquisition strategy that will allow them to generate revenue and profit.
Related Read: The Startup Metrics Potential Investors Want to See
Related Resources:
- All-Encompassing Startup Fundraising Guide
- 15 Venture Capital Firms Investing in VR
- FinTech Venture Capital Investors to Know
BITKRAFT Ventures
Stage: Seed, Series A/B
Investment Location: Global
Key person: Jens Hilgers, Malte Barth, Scott Rupp, and Moritz Baier-Lentz
Gaming investments: Epic Games, Manticore Games, Frost Giant, Anzu, Bit Fry, Carbonated, Koji, Voicemod, etc.
Thesis: Built by founders for founders, BITKRAFT is a global early- and mid-stage investment platform for gaming, esports, and interactive media. We focus on Seed, Series A, and Series B investments in game studios, interactive platforms, and immersive technology.
Learn more about BITKRAFT’s vision here!
Play Ventures
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Investment Location: Global
Key persons: Anton Backman, Harris Manninen, Henric Suuronen
Gaming investments: Thirdwave, Azra Games, Fractal
Thesis: We are a global early-stage gaming fund, founded by two gaming entrepreneurs. We invest globally and early into ambitious mobile & PC free-to-play game studios and games services startups that are looking for more than just money.
Makers Fund
Stage: Seed, Series A, Series B
Investment Location: North America
Key persons: Jay Chi, Jiang Li, Lia Zhang, Matthew Ball, Michael Cheung
Gaming investments: Theorycraft Games, Smitten, Xterio
Thesis: We support innovative, ambitious founders. Our fund helps visionary entrepreneurs create their initial foundation and support them as they navigate the waters of early-stage business.
1Up Ventures
Stage: Seed, Series A
Investment Location: Pacific Northwest
Key persons: Chris Wheaton, Ed Fries
Gaming investments: Lost Lake Games, Drop Fake, Lightforge Games
Thesis: At 1Up Ventures we are building a diverse and inclusive community of the most talented, experienced, and creative independent game developers in the world. We believe that by working together we can help each other be more successful.
Black Sheep Ventures
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Investment Location: Global
Key person: Nolan Bushnell, Ron Bauer
Gaming investments: X2 Games
Thesis: Black Sheep Ventures seeks visionary entrepreneurs who are unflinching in creating new realities for entertainment experiences and human interactions, including in eSports, Gaming, Blockchain Technology and Immersive Experiences and other sectors, where disruptive technology such as Blockchain and visionary creativity can permanently shift the established order.
CAA Ventures
Stage: Seed, Series A/B
Investment Location: United States, Canada
Key person: Michael Blank
Gaming investments: Streamlabs, Mobcrush, Dapper, & more.
Thesis: CAA Ventures provides value beyond capital to company founders. These companies are largely in the consumer Internet sector with an emphasis on mobile platforms, social media, crowdfunding, online video, publishing, games, and eCommerce.
Dune Ventures
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A/B
Investment Location: Global with a focus on NYC
Key person: David Brillembourg
Gaming investments: First Light Games, Oooh TV, Kanga
Thesis: Dune Ventures: a new early-stage venture firm investing in gaming, esports, and interactive technology. We invest globally and back founders building content studios, social platforms and infrastructure that will define the next generation of entertainment.
GameFounders
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed
Investment Location: Global
Key person: Kadri Ugand, Paul Bragiel
Gaming investments: First Light Games, Oooh TV, Kanga
Thesis: GameFounders accelerate teams or companies with two or more persons with launched games/demos/slices from any country in the world.
Gamerforce Ventures
Stage: Seed, Series A
Investment Location: Global
Key person: Lance Quek
Gaming investments: Resurgence
Thesis: Gamerforce Ventures is one of the first venture capital firms that is set up specifically to create high-value companies in the Esports and Gaming scene. Our partners are successful entrepreneurs and high flying executives coming from diverse backgrounds to help our portfolio companies succeed. We typically invest between seed and Series A, but may come in at later stages should the opportunity arises.
Konvoy Ventures
Stage: Seed, Series A
Investment Location: Global
Key person: Jason Chapman, Jackson Vaughan, Josh Chapman
Gaming investments: Bunch, GameFam, Hiberworld, Lootcakes, & more.
Thesis: We invest in the infrastructure technology, tools, and platforms of tomorrow’s video gaming industry.
London Venture Partners
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed
Investment Location: Europe, North America
Key person: David Gardner, David Lau-Kee, Are Mack Growen
Gaming investments: Treehouse Games, Knock Knock, Singularity 6, Coda, & more.
Thesis: LVP is a venture capital seed fund with a difference – we’re operating experts in the games sector, and we only ever invest in the games ecosystem. That means we bring real experience and deep understanding. We speak the same language, share the same references, understand the same challenges – and we believe in the same vision.
Remagine Ventures
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed
Investment Location: Europe, Israel
Key person: Eze Vidra, Kevin Baxpehler
Gaming investments: Hour One, Syte, Minute Media, & more.
Thesis: We meet and invest in startups early, help them refine product-market fit and introduce them to our strategic partners in order to kick-off collaborations and accelerate time-to-market.
SeventySix Capital
Stage: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Investment Location: United States
Key person: Jon Powell, Wayne Kimmel, Chad Stender
Gaming investments: Nerd Street Gamers
Thesis: SeventySix Capital invests in passionate, smart and nice entrepreneurs who are launching game-changing startups in sports tech, esports, and sports betting.
Griffin Gaming Partners
Stage: All stages
Investment Location: Global
Key persons: Phil Sanderson, Peter Levin, Nick Tuosto
Gaming investments: Forte, Discord, Overwolf
Thesis: Investing at the intersection of content, software, infrastructure, and gaming-related web3 companies.
Connect with esports investors with Visible
Finding the right investors for your business is only half the battle. Having a system to track and manage your fundraise to help you get back to what matters most — building your business.
Use Visible Connect to browse our investor database of hand-curated investors. Find investors and add them directly to your Fundraising Pipeline in Visible. Give it a try here.
