Hiro Capital, a tech VC fund focused on Games, Esports, and Digital Sports has invested $15 million (approx £10.6 million) in three international video game studios – Snowprint (Stockholm/Berlin), Double Loop Games (San Francisco), and Happy Volcano (Belgium).
How will the funding be used?
The three mobile and cross-platform studios will use the funding to expand their development pipelines and accelerate global growth. With this round, they join the other UK and US Games studios Flavourworks, Polyarc, and Lightfox in the Hiro Capital portfolio.
Games, Esports, and Sports investors
Based out of London and Luxembourg, Hiro Capital generally invests at the post-seed Series A and B stages.
The VC firm generally invests in front-end Content creators in Games, Esports, and Digital Sports and in deep tech Metaverse applications of Cloud, Mobile, Streaming, Big Data, AI, Wearables, AR, and VR technologies.
Ian Livingstone, the co-founding partner at Hiro Capital, said, “We are excited to begin 2021 by announcing Hiro’s investment in three amazing games studios, Snowprint, Double Loop, and Happy Volcano. Each studio has demonstrated innovation and expertise in developing fun-to-play games which resonate with today’s audiences. I’m especially pleased that one of the studios came through our first Dark Star™ event for emerging indies looking to scale their businesses. If only venture capital had been interested in the games sector back in the 1970s, I might not have had to sleep in a van during the early days of Games Workshop!”
Luke Alvarez, Founding Partner of Hiro said: “Hiro was founded to invest in the super-sector of Games, Sports and Metaverse technologies. On every dimension, in every market, 2020/21 has been a story of strong growth – in users, sales, devices, stream views, and innovations. People fell in love, got married and graduated in games, and are coming out of lockdown stronger thanks to gamified wearables and VR fitness tech. As a VC, it is exciting to see our sector focus so emphatically confirmed. Finally, Hiro is a diverse team and so are these new studios, including our first female Games founders, Emily and Shelby.”
Snowprint Studios
Snowprint Studios was founded in 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden, and has since grown with a second studio in Berlin. The company operates its debut mobile title Legend of Solgard and is now also working on three new mobile projects, including Rivengard, a turn-based tactics game that launched globally on 21st January 2021, as well as an undisclosed AAA mobile IP coming soon out of its Berlin studio.
“We had heard great things about Hiro and have been impressed by the entire team from our very first interactions,” said Alexander Ekvall. “The team has a deep understanding of building successful games companies and this is reflected in the support they provide. The backing from Hiro means we are better equipped than ever to execute on our mission to deliver genre-defining experiences.”
Double Loop Games
Double Loop Games is a San Francisco-based social mobile game studio working on its debut title. Double Loop Games is now preparing to launch its exciting social mobile title, made for players who don’t think of themselves as gamers.
“We’ve been thrilled with the level of insight the Hiro team brings to games and the games industry,” said Emily Greer. “They immediately understood both the upside and the potential challenges around our more innovative mechanics. We look forward to a long and productive partnership with people that we know really get it.”
Happy Volcano
Happy Volcano, a new studio from Belgium that secured funding after attending Hiro Capital’s Dark Star VC investment summit for early-stage Games studios. Last year, Happy Volcano released the critically acclaimed narrative exploration game The Almost Gone and is currently working on a new soon-to-launch cross-platform game You Suck at Parking.
“Teaming up with Hiro Capital means we can take the next step on our journey to become a leading creative game studio,” commented Jeroen Janssen, Founder and CEO at Happy Volcano. “Attending the Dark Star event in 2020 made it clear to us that Hiro brings a lot of value besides just funding. Knowing that an industry legend like Ian Livingstone is backing your vision gives the entire team confidence that we are on the right path.”
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