Articles from Makers Fund

Cheer Games, a next-generation mobile puzzle studio founded by former senior leaders at AppLovin’s Lion Studios and creators of the top-grossing hit Hexa Sort, raised a $4.5 million pre-seed round led by Makers Fund with participation from Play Ventures and a strategic group of angel investors. The funding will accelerate development of Cheer’s upcoming slate of games and expand its Barcelona headquarters with new global talent.

Independent game studio Human Computer, a collaborative creative powerhouse, has raised $5.7M in a seed round led by Makers Fund. a16z and former Airbnb COO Belinda Johnson have also invested in the company, bringing the total funding to date to $7.7M. Tyler Matheson of Makers Fund will join the board, and Sam Rosenthal, The Game Band founder, is Human Computer’s first advisor. Founded by technology and games executives Alex Schleifer and Eliot Garcia Weisberg, both had formerly worked together at Airbnb where Schleifer was Chief Design Officer, the Human Computer team has decades of experience building and scaling beloved products across technology and media. Human Computer is on a mission to develop rewarding interactive experiences built on technical excellence and creative vision, to reimagine game development practices.

Vinci Games, a globally-distributed virtual reality (VR) game studio, has raised $5.1 million in a seed funding round led by Makers Fund, with participation from Y Combinator, Soma Capital, Pioneer Fund, Anorak Ventures, BonAngels, and Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin.

Grammy-winning songwriter and producer BloodPop, while working on projects for artists like Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, has founded and launched Genpop Interactive alongside former DeNA and BANDAI NAMCO executive Aubrey Tennant. Genpop Interactive is a game development studio building original AAA games that will drive forward the next-gen of music, fashion and gaming culture. The studio comprises more than 25 developers, drawing from decades of experience in the production, AI, design and development of dozens of top-grossing and critically acclaimed titles including League of Legends, Halo Infinite, Cyberpunk, Red Dead Redemption II, The Sims and many more.

Strider, building a platform to revolutionize how new IP are both developed and owned, has raised $5.5M in a seed round co-led by Makers Fund and Fabric Ventures, with participation from Shima Capital, Sfermion, Magic Eden and other notable funds, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $8.5M. Founded by game industry veterans, including former a16z Partner and TinyCo operations and growth executive Andrew N. Green, former EA Games and Jam City Product Management VP Michael Brozman, former Square Enix and Rockstar Games creative Michael Cala and former go-to-market specialist for TV and film Nick Braccia, the Strider team has deep roots in narrative games and world-class entertainment IP, including Harry Potter, Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Westworld, Dead Space, MARVEL Avengers, Watchmen and Futurama.

Noodle Cat Games, an independent games studio built upon a positive, balanced work culture, has raised $4.1 million in a seed funding round led by Makers Fund, with additional participation by 1Up Ventures and investor Matthew Ball’s Epyllion. With leadership and game development talent drawing from decades of experience at Epic Games, Electronic Arts, BioWare and PopCap, the Noodle Cat team is on a mission to implement a flexible, iteration-based development model rooted at the intersection of trust, creativity and empathy.

Theorycraft Games today announced an additional $50 million raised in Series B funding, led by Makers Fund with participation from NEA and a16z. Theorycraft Games will use this raise to continue building out the most talent-dense team in games and to ensure they can keep making deep, 10,000 hour games that are just better when played with friends, like the company’s first game, codenamed Loki.